No Further Development of OneNote 2016 for MS Office 2019

Microsoft confirmed this week that there will not be an OneNote app for Office 2019. Further development for Office 2016 OneNote will also be discontinued.

Microsoft announced important changes for the digital note-taking program OneNote. OneNote will no longer be a standard program for the upcoming Office 2019 version. Instead, OneNote for Windows 10 will replace this (locally installed) Office 2016 OneNote version and only permit syncing via OneDrive.

Microsoft will discontinue development of Office 2016 OneNote, and has therefore excluded the possibility of new functions or the improvement of currency. Users of Office 2016 OneNote is a desktop application will continue to receive patches and security updates. It will also be possible to keep Office 2016 OneNote installed locally. Microsoft Office 2016 OneNote life cycle: Mainstream support ends: October 13, 2020; extended support ends: 14 October 14, 2025.

Microsoft will not offer OneNote as an integral part of Office 2019. In future, anyone looking to use a local desktop version of OneNote in combination with Office 2019 will have to revert to – and install – the Windows 10 UWP version, which is available from the Windows 10 Store. Microsoft has justified this decision by stating that users want one single, standardized version of the note-taking program.

There will be a stack of new features for Windows 10 OneNote as a UWP app, which is scheduled for release this summer. Examples include:

• Handwriting recognition
• Tag support
• Recovery of older notes 
• Improved integration in other Office products 
• (…)

All changes on Windows 10 OneNote can be reviewed here: “What's new in OneNote for Windows 10” and here “What's the difference between OneNote and OneNote 2016?"

The note-taking programs will only sync via the cloud. And exclusively local use will no longer be possible in Windows 10 OneNote. Users that depend on this feature will have to look around for an alternative application.