correct names / how do you distinguish between office 365 desktop apps vs. exchange?

Maybe I'm oversimplifying things but to me / what I need from office 365 is office desktop apps and / or exchange

are those the correct terms for those parts of the services?

when you say o365 desktop apps people know what that is?

And to describe the mail server part, is it proper to call that feature 'o365 exchange' or something else?

Hello,

Like you said, I have noticed many people confused with these terms. Furthermore, normal people believe that O365 is the same office... but in the cloud. Some times I ask further, and they don't have idea what are they talking about.

Office 365 is formed by a group of services and products which can be purchased separately, partially or complete. The most common services and products that it includes are:

-Exchange Online
-Lync Online
-SharePoint Online
-Office applications (Word, Excep, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote). "Full installed"
-Online version of office (When using online technologies, such as Exchange and SharePoint, you can create or open documents online. This does not require an office client in your computer, if that is the case).

The answer for your main question is: Exchange Online, as far as it is the formal name for the online version of Exchange.

Office apps are exactly the same one that we install using a CD, ISO or USB at home. The only difference is the licensing mode. This is not based on a product key, but an online activation associated with your O365 account.

As I specified at the beginning, these products could be received separately, having multiple different plans and combinations for Office 365.

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Schnell SolutionsSystems Infrastructure EngineerCommented: 2015-08-20

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LVL 51

Vasil Michev (MVP)Commented: 2015-08-20

Well MS marketing people certainly made a mess when they decided to call both the desktop suite and the SaaS solution "Office 365". Then there's OneDrive, Skype, and whatnot, all of which come with 'O365' and 'consumer' variants, and are generally referred by the same name.

It's really difficult in some cases to get the correct information from the user, as to what he is actually referring. So either push some guidance to your users, or similarly, make sure the support staff asks the correct questions and identifies what the user is talking about...

At least for the mail part it's easy - Exchange Online. Outlook on the other hand, not so much - we have the same name for the desktop app, mobile apps, now even the web app will be branded Outlook ("on the web").

BeGentleWithMe-INeedHelpAuthor Commented: 2015-08-20

thanks!

correct names / how do you distinguish between office 365 desktop apps vs. exchange?

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