Confirming previous rumors, Microsoft has officially announced that September 22 will be the launch date for Office 2016 for Windows. Office 365 Personal and Home subscribers can manually download Office 2016 on that date, or they can wait for automatic updates to their apps to begin sometime in October.
Business customers who are signed up for Office 365 ProPlus will have a new update option, Current Branch for Business, that will allow those users to wait a few months for feature updates to be released for Office 2016. Microsoft stated:
"Consistent with Windows 10 approach, the new Current Branch for Business update model delivers three cumulative feature updates per year, while continuing to offer monthly security updates. You'll see the first Current Branch for Business build in February 2016—which is effectively the same feature set as the September 22nd release, but with four additional months of security updates also included. This tri-annual update model offers an additional way for Office 365 ProPlus to stay current moving forward."
Some of the new features in Office 2016 for Windows include the ability to create, edit and save documents in the cloud from the desktop, along with co-authoring in files in real time. Office 2016 also includes the new "Tell Me" search tool for commands in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Source: Microsoft
