Evolving Jira terminology: ‘Projects’ will soon be ‘Spaces’

[#1]

Last year, we began our journey to improve the language in Jira to better reflect the diverse ways teams define and manage their work. Today, we’re excited to announce the next step in this evolution: Jira ‘projects’ are becoming Jira ‘spaces’.

This change builds on previous updates, like the transition to "work" in Jira, and reinforces our commitment to creating a tool that’s more accessible and intuitive for all teams – whether you’re planning a sprint, managing a marketing campaign, or tracking company-wide initiatives.

Why the change to ‘spaces’?

The term ‘project’ has been a core part of Jira since its beginning, but over time, we've heard from you that it causes confusion.

For many teams, ‘projects’ are typically understood to have defined start and end dates, hierarchical structures, and clear scopes. However, Jira ‘projects’ function differently – they're containers for work, not tied to the traditional definition of a project.

This disconnect has created challenges, especially as Jira evolves to support a broader range of teams and integrates more deeply with the wider Atlassian ecosystem.

Here’s why we’re making the shift to ‘spaces’:

• Clarity and alignment: The term ‘space’ better represents how Jira containers are used today – as flexible, scalable hubs for organizing work. This aligns with terminology already used in Confluence, where ‘spaces’ serve as collaborative hubs for teams.

• Consistency across our tools: As part of our Teamwork Collection, Jira, Confluence, Loom, and Rovo are designed to work seamlessly together. Standardizing container terminology across these apps will make it easier for teams to navigate the tools they use every day.

What’s changing, and what’s not…

This update is purely a terminology change. The functionality, behavior, and scope of your Jira containers remain exactly the same.

• What’s changing: The term 'project' will now be replaced with ‘space’ across all Jira Cloud products (including Jira Service Management and Jira Product Discovery) and the ‘projects’ icon will be updated to reflect this new terminology.

• What’s not changing: Everything else about how you use these containers remains the same. You’ll continue to scope your work, organize items, and collaborate in 'spaces' just as you did in ‘projects’.

Put simply: “Projects have a new name. Everything else is the same.” You can keep using Jira the way you always have, with no disruption to your workflows, customizations, or integrations.

Atlassian Projects: Updates with context, all in one place

Atlassian Projects, available now in Atlassian Home, are purpose-built to provide high-level visibility into work with defined timelines, goals, and stakeholders.

They bring together regular updates, timelines, and progress in one place, making it easier for cross-functional teams and stakeholders to stay informed and aligned.

By renaming Jira "projects" to "spaces," we’re making it easier to distinguish between these two features and their unique purposes. Atlassian Projects help teams communicate the "big picture" of their work, while Jira Spaces give them the structure to get it done.

When is this happening?

We’ll begin rolling out the new ‘space' terminology from October 2025. This update will be handled in stages, and we’ll share more detailed timelines soon so you know when to expect this change.

If you’re an admin, there’s nothing you need to do – this update will happen automatically, and Jira will continue to function just as it always has.

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We’d love to hear from you! If you have any questions, feedback, or suggestions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

[__ Jimi Wikman]

Finally!!

I have been waiting for this change :)

[Sanam Malleswari]

Interesting change!  ‘Spaces’ feels more flexible and aligns well with how teams actually use Jira. Looking forward to the update!

[Shivam Sharma]

Now the terminology has been changing for all teams. That's great. Now the apps are more relevant for everyday teams

[Yatish Madhav]

Change is the only constant, huh?! hehe

Thanks for this post and change. It seems positive ... I think. I do like that it aligns for Teamwork Collaboration too. But also wonder what push back it may have ...

As with most of these terminology changes , I assume APIs would be unaffected and, if affected in future, they would allow for backward compatibility so that scripts, etc does not break, yes?

Also - please elaborate a little more and illustrate on what Atlassian Projects is? This is so that I can better inform our end users to eliminate confusion on this. If replacing the term 'projects' in one place and introducing it elsewhere, it may cause this confusion.

Thank you

Yatish

[Oleksii Melnyk]

Hello! Please clarify whether there will be changes related to the API platform and Forge?

[Dirk Ronsmans]

@Shilpa Airi ,

While the namechange is not a bad thing, has any consideration been given to how this will be confusing in combination with Confluence spaces?

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Definitelly supporting this! I've seen many organizations struggle with terminology when it comes to 'projects', and I also appreciate the current approach, which is similar to Confluence (as we often compare structure and architecture when presenting Jira, Confluence, and other apps). Way to go, in my opinion 👍

[Brita Moorus]

Thanks for sharing this update! 👏

It’s interesting to see Jira evolving its terminology to better align with Atlassian’s broader ecosystem - making Projects into Spaces feels like a natural step towards more integrated collaboration across tools.

[Chris Atkinson]

I think this is a great change as I've always thought that if you use a "Project" as a team backlog then it doesn't make sense.  BUT haven't you just flipped this confusion 180?   What about companies that use Projects... as projects.   This change will now not make sense? (or did I miss something?)

[Adrian Kerry]

Conceptually I can understand where you're going with this, but I've run into an obvious problem using Atlassian Projects as I try and use Goals - you can only map one Epic to an Atlassian Project, but most projects will have more than one Epic in them (and it's good practice to do so), so you'd need to allow support of multiple Epics being mapped to an Atlassian Project. Is that coming?

[HAEGELIN Sacha]

What will happen with the project field and JQL using it?

[Martina Guth]

In general, I guess it is a cool move. Maybe there will be some confusion when our users mix up Confluence and JIRA spaces.
However, is it possible to get a list of all the terminology changes you are planning in the future? After issue to work and project to space, it seems to me there is more of it coming up?

[Eileen McEneaney]

Why spaces as the rename?   Surely there is some other word that won't be confused with confluence spaces???

[Ivan Ferreira]

Can I request that this change be implemented on the site? I'm preparing training materials and would like this term to be updated as soon as possible!  

[gobby_chen]

We'd like to know that will this change affect customers' existing automations? For example, will JQL or API need to be rewritten or reconfigured?

[Rudy Holtkamp]

I just double checked  the 📅 to see if it is April Fools' Day....

[Clairee Daniels]

@Shilpa Airi Will this impact JQL, Automation, APIs, and Add-on integrations?

[__ Jimi Wikman]

I see some comments regarding confusion between Confluence Spaces and Jira spaces, and I think we will very quickly see Work Spaces and Documentation/Collaboration spaces...

Impact on APIs, JQL and other Code related things I think they missed that, but I assume they will be handled the same as other name changes lately with both projects and spaces being available for a foreseeable time... Good to get that confirmed though.

[Harrison Ponce]

[Guess_ Brandi N_]

I see some concern about the use of Spaces. I think aligning with the terminology we already use for confluence is great. people already have an idea of what a space is. this is a work space or Jira space that is a confluence space. very simple concept, and good riddance to having to explain the difference between a Project that is in Jira vs a Jira Project. 

[Justin Kuta]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peu-3fxOy-g

[Kseniia Trushnikova]

Hey, is this change in terminology planned for Jira DC future releases?

[Dave Liao]

Will Trello boards be renamed to Trello spaces? 😄

[Bill Sheboy]

In my experience, the term "project" in Jira often causes confusion due to overloading.  And, calling something a "bug" which is a "defect" may puzzle others.  Regardless...

One wonders if within the next year or so, the changes from "issue" to "work item", from "project" to "space", and so on..., lead to an extended, data corruption outage due to unannounced (or announced too late to matter) updates of automation smart values and the REST API endpoint versions, perhaps from an out-of-sequence versioning release problem.  

Even without such breaking-updates, a "decoder ring" may be needed going forward for smart values and endpoints to confirm the actual, impacted entities.

[Matt Doar _Adaptavist_]

Not surprised. And I feel like we have an idea of how this will be introduced and what it will affect first. Should reduce some customer confusion over the use of the word "project"