Microsoft is making it easier to switch between different accounts when using Microsoft 365 apps on the web. Starting this month, the company has started rolling out seamless account switching across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 web apps.

Until now, users of Microsoft’s web apps who wanted to quickly switch accounts had to log out and then sign in with a different account, but it was often more convenient to use different web browsers (or Microsoft Edge profiles). With this new account switching functionality, though, users will be able to sign into multiple accounts in the same browser and switch between accounts on the fly.

“With this feature, we are helping reduce the friction users face when wanting to work with multiple accounts in the Microsoft 365 web apps. Security and privacy are extremely important for both Microsoft and our customers, and this feature maintains data integrity and privacy across different account and organization boundaries,” the company explained.

In practice, only one personal Microsoft account or Azure AD account can be active per web app at a time. This means that you can’t use the same web app with different accounts at the same time, as Microsoft will notify tabs with non-active accounts to refresh with the active account.

“From April to June, this functionality will be rolled out in Worldwide environments of Office.com, Word, Excel, PowerPoint for the web, Outlook on the web, OneDrive for the web, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 admin center,” the company announced yesterday. The software giant also said that it’s already working on bringing seamless account switching to more Microsoft 365 web apps in the future.

Tagged with Microsoft 365, Office 365, Office Web Apps