ai and ml
Consumer and work experiences converge, while a few features face the chop
Microsoft’s consumer Copilot app and Microsoft 365 Copilot are separate no more, with a unified Copilot app beginning its rollout Thursday - minus a few features.The Windows maker and AI pusher announced the Copilot superapp rollout in a help page update Thursday, describing the move as a way to simplify its app ecosystem and make the entire Copilot-first experience “more cohesive” for both consumer and business users. “Depending on the account and device you use, you will see changes to the Copilot app including changes to appearance and functionality, such as navigation, feature availability, or sign-in experience,” Microsoft explained on the help page.
The new Copilot app brings not only new branding but structural changes as well. The Copilot bot and its image generation features now live alongside the Microsoft 365 suite, files, and other content, allowing users with an account supporting the classic Office package to access their productivity software alongside Redmond's chatty LLM.
Copilot users without a paid subscription, naturally, face lower usage limits and fewer features, but support for multiple accounts means users can switch between personal and work or school profiles instead of having to hop between entirely separate apps.“You can continue to chat with Copilot, create images, upload files and more for free, subject to available capacity and limits,” Microsoft said. “For higher limits to chat and create, use agents, or tackle complex multi-step tasks, purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription.” Whether the new combined app will come with nag messages is up to users to find out. What this change will look like in practice varies based on the sort of account a Copilot user had before the merger. Those who just use Copilot with a personal account “will be moved to an updated version of Copilot,” with chat history and most content transferring to the updated app. Files shared and generated with the old standalone Copilot app will be shunted to OneDrive if you’re wondering where they went.Users of Microsoft 365 Copilot, the name Redmond slapped on the Microsoft 365 (Office) app in January 2025, “may notice some updates to appearance and navigation,” so get ready to rediscover where certain options and buttons are. What Microsoft left behindMicrosoft is abandoning a few features from the old Copilot apps as part of the merger: It is removing Podcasts and Group Chat and scrapping Deep Research from the consumer Copilot app, while Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers can instead use the separate Researcher feature. All of this will be effective as of August 18. Podcasts that were created or saved in Copilot will be entirely unavailable, per an FAQ page, and links to any shared podcasts will stop working. Microsoft recommends downloading any podcasts users want to save before updating to the new app, or they’ll be lost.
