Microsoft is utilizing Copilot as a pillar for the way forward for Home windows, however the Copilot expertise sees an enormous downgrade with the debut of “Copilot+ PCs,” because it’s now only a easy internet app.
Over the previous few months, Microsoft has doubled down on Copilot all through Home windows. Earlier this yr, laptops began to ship with a devoted keyboard key for launching Copilot which, on the time, took the type of an built-in sidebar.
Now, although, Microsoft has ditched that sidebar expertise. As an alternative, Copilot now seems by way of a Progressive Internet App (PWA) powered by Microsoft Edge browser. Urgent the Copilot button on a brand new Copilot+ PC akin to the most recent Floor Laptop computer, the place we observed the change earlier this week, launches the online app as a window on the display. There’s no OS integration to see.
As The Verge notes, this additionally got here with a large practical downgrade. Copilot’s internet app can not deal with system instructions akin to altering settings or interacting with apps. Microsoft stated in a latest weblog submit that this permits the corporate to “extra agilely develop and optimize” Copilot.
…we’re additionally evolving the Copilot expertise on Home windows as an app that will probably be pinned to the taskbar. This permits customers to get the advantages of a standard app expertise, together with the flexibility to resize, transfer, and snap the window – suggestions we’ve heard from customers all through the preview of Copilot in Home windows. This mannequin additionally permits Microsoft to extra agilely develop and optimize the expertise based mostly on person suggestions.
The change places the expertise of utilizing Copilot on Home windows extra consistent with that of Gemini on Chromebook Plus laptops. Google introduced Gemini help late final month with a devoted Gemini app accessible on ChromeOS. Nonetheless, like Copilot’s new type, it’s only a PWA.
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