Microsoft Forms is a great way to quickly create online surveys, but until today, it's only been available for business or education use. Now, Microsoft Forms is opening up for anyone to use for free, regardless of if it's for business purposes or not.

Microsoft Forms Enter the Public Domain

Microsoft made the announcement over on the Microsoft 365 blog. You can also start making forms yourself by heading to the Microsoft Forms website, or by using the Office 365 app.

Microsoft Forms is a powerful tool, as it uses AI to guess how you want to construct your form. Once you've named your form, the AI kicks in and tries to work out what you want from your form. As you add modules, the AI will recommend templates that may suit your needs.

Once your form is ready to go, you can share it with others to fill out. If you plan on emailing it, you can just send a link for people to click on. If you want to attach the form on something physical (like a poster), you can instead generate a QR code so people can scan it.

You can use Microsoft Forms for free, but there is a premium option that grants you special bonuses, such as an expanded recipients pool.

Why Is Microsoft Changing Its Stance on Microsoft Forms?

It may seem odd that Microsoft is suddenly changing its mind about Microsoft Forms, but there's a very good reason to make this move.

As people are moving to online work during the current pandemic, everything has to be done digitally. What could once be achieved through a print-out questionnaire must now be done wholly online.

Microsoft Forms is a powerful tool, and there wasn't anything wrong with it specifically. Its problem laid instead with its competition, of which there was plenty.

There are many different form and survey-creation tools out there on the web. One of the most powerful ones, however, is Google Forms. There are plenty of awesome reasons to use Google Forms, but the one that stands out most is that anyone with a Google account can make forms for free.

As such, there was very little reason for people to use Microsoft Forms when Google's offering did something similar for totally free. As such, Microsoft's move to bring its forms service to the public may be a move to challenge Google Forms at its own game.

Getting More Productive With Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms is now available for anyone to use, meaning you can now create AI-powered questionnaires for free. We'll have to see if it can hold a candle to Google's own offerings.

Of course, given Microsoft Forms' past exclusivity, there's a good chance you didn't even know it existed until today. If you're in this camp, don't worry; it's easy to learn how to use Microsoft Forms and get started.

Image Credit: Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock.com