Retirement scheduled for late 2026

According to information circulated via the Microsoft 365 admin center, the Companions — auxiliary features associated with Microsoft 365 — are slated for retirement on December 16, 2026. The original admin center message (MC1474111) requires administrator authentication to view, limiting public access to its full text.

Reason framed as inference, not official statement

The suggestion that Microsoft 365 customers "did not find them particularly useful" is not an officially stated cause. It appears in reporting as a hedged estimation ("it seems that"), rather than as a documented rationale from Microsoft. No publicly available statement confirms customer disuse as the driving factor behind the retirement decision.

Support documentation and media assets for the Companions remain accessible on Microsoft's support site, but the underlying retirement notice itself is gated behind admin credentials, with public archive mirrors such as mc.merill.net cited as potential access points.

What remains unconfirmed

Whether Microsoft has issued an explicit public explanation for the December 16, 2026 retirement date is unclear, as the primary notice remains behind administrative login. Until the full message text is independently accessible, the claim about customer reception should be treated as plausible but unproven.

On balance, the retirement date stands, while the stated customer-demand rationale is an inference — making the overall claim Mostly True.