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Microsoft plans to combine OneNote and OneNote for Windows 10 into just one OneNote app. The plan is to take all the improvements made on the UWP OneNote for Windows 10 app and bring them to the traditional OneNote desktop app.

The enhancements should be available in a series of updates over the next year, to the traditional OneNote desktop app that installs as part of the Office Suite.

The updates include visual changes and the introduction of features that were uniquely for OneNote for Windows 10. Microsoft has not revealed which features it plans to move yet.

The most loved features

Microsoft has said that the best features will be brought to the unified apps, to continue making OneNote function the way it should. Existing users of the OneNote for Windows 10 app will be asked to upgrade to the desktop OneNote app in the second half of next year.

The OneNote team explained that advances in Windows and Office will allow them to unify the two apps so users have a simple OneNote app on Windows, with an interface and features they are familiar with.

Even though Microsoft does not plan to kill off the UWP version of OneNote for Windows 10, it notes that users ought to move to the desktop app by October 2025, when support for it ends.

UWP will have to go

The changes to OneNote on Windows will not affect Microsoft’s OneNote app for Android, the web, iOS, and macOS. It is just a way for Microsoft to unify the separate OneNote apps into something that will probably offer the best of both worlds.

For those running Windows 11 from a clean installation or on a new device, OneNote for Windows 10 will not be installed by default.