Real Radio North West began a gradual transition to the Heart branding on 24 March 2014 and phased out the Real Radio branding on Sunday 20 April 2014. On 1 May 2014, local programming moved from Laser House in Salford to nearby Exchange Quay, sharing facilities with sister stations Capital Manchester and XFM Manchester. The full relaunch as Heart North West took place at 6am on Tuesday 6 May 2014. On 12 June 2017, local programming moved from Salford to new studios at the XYZ building in the Spinningfields district of Manchester City Centre. Heart North West shares facilities with its sister station Capital Manchester and two Communicorp-owned stations, Smooth North West and XS Manchester. On 26 February 2019, Global announced sister station Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria would close and merge with Heart North West. On 3 June 2019, following further deregulation, local breakfast and weekend shows were replaced with network programming from London. Regional output was reduced to a three-hour drivetime show on weekdays, plus localised news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising. All four of Heart North West's presenters, including breakfast presenters Joel Ross and Lorna Bancroft and weekend presenter Faye Bamford left the station. All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including "Heart Breakfast", presented each weekday by Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden. Regional programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Manchester studios from 4-7pm on weekdays, presented by Adam Weighell. Global's Manchester newsroom broadcasts hourly localised news bulletins from 0600–1900 on weekdays and from 0600–1200 at weekends - including two extended 12 minutes weekday programmes, "Heart Morning News" (0600–0612) and "Heart Nightly News" (1845–1857) - plus headlines on the half hour during breakfast and drivetime shows. Separate bulletins are produced for the North West of England and the licence area previously served by Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria.