Microsoft Sway is changing, and you might want to reconsider its use

Microsoft has posted a Message Center update stating that Sway will retire from the “Create” tab in the Microsoft 365 home page due to “low usage.” While they are not retiring Sway as a product offering, a little reading between the lines doesn’t bode well for its long-term future…

For those who are thinking… what’s Sway? It’s an interactive tool to create newsletters, presentations, and documentation. Think of something like PowerPoint where you can scroll the screen to the right for the next “slide”, then downwards, etc. Since its initial release, it really hasn’t taken off like Microsoft had probably hoped. I’ve tried to steer people away from it as it felt like it may not have a long-term life span.

I’ve included the Microsoft information below so you can read the details on your own. The following paragraph is the one that I think bears consideration:

Microsoft continues to strive to focus resources improving the most impactful apps and experiences. Even though Microsoft is not investing in improving the Sway product, the current capabilities of Sway remain fully supported and Office/Microsoft 365 users are encouraged to leverage the value that Sway offers.

If you are using Sway, it’s not going away based on this announcement. But given that Microsoft has been retiring a considerable number of features of late, I don’t think I’d want to continue down that road “just in case”.

We will retire Sway feature from the Create tab in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app starting March 24, 2025 and ending March 31, 2025 due to low usage. Instead, we recommend using Sway from the Apps section of https://m365.cloud.microsoft.

Microsoft continues to strive to focus resources improving the most impactful apps and experiences. Even though Microsoft is not investing in improving the Sway product, the current capabilities of Sway remain fully supported and Office/Microsoft 365 users are encouraged to leverage the value that Sway offers.

Users will no longer be able to use Sway from the Create tab after this retirement is implemented. Users can create new Sways and maintain existing Sways from the Apps section of https://m365.cloud.microsoft.

This rollout will happen automatically by the specified date with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation.