14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will retire Office Mix on May 1, 2018, and the company has started the latest stage of the process, with notifications now displayed to users who log in on the official website.
Office Mix was a Microsoft PowerPoint add-on that brought extra tools for presentations, such as polls, but in the meantime, the company implemented all of them in the app itself. This means an add-on is no longer required, and Microsoft is now discontinuing Mix for a streamlined experience.
GHacks writes that users can no longer create new content with Office Mix since April 6 and everyone must export the data until May 1 or lose it forever.
“Office Mix is retiring May 1, 2018. Please sign-in to migrate or download your content from the Office Mix site before May 1, 2018 to avoid losing any of your data,” the notification reads.
Phased retirement
The decision to discontinue Office Mix was announced in October 2017 when Microsoft confirmed that its PowerPoint add-on would be retired because it no longer makes sense.
“Thanks to the positive feedback from our users during the Preview we are excited to share that we are bringing the best of Office Mix directly into PowerPoint, Microsoft Stream, and Microsoft Forms for Office 365 subscribers on Windows PCs,” the firm said at that point.
Office Mix was launched in May 2014 as a preview, so seeing it going dark without even leaving the alpha program was a bit surprising. The add-on, however, is being retired in stages, and starting January 1 new users are no longer allowed for the service.
The full removal will take place on May 1, Microsoft says when “the Office Mix site and all its content will be officially discontinued. The site will no longer be accessible after that date. Any links to your Office Mix content that you previously shared with others will stop working after this date.”