Last week, we learned that opening Outlook links in Microsoft Edge automatically gets the content of those links summarized by Copilot. This week, Microsoft continues to experiment with Copilot and links, as the assistant can now open web URLs natively inside its desktop app.
Starting today for Windows Insiders, whenever you click a web link inside a Copilot chat, the content will open in a dedicated sidepane directly next to your active conversation. This means that opening a link won’t cause a browser to “jump” out of the taskbar, as everything stays inside the Copilot app.
Copilot also has the full context of open pages. You can ask the assistant to summarize a page or extract facts from it and use that info to complete a task like drafting an email or creating a document. Access to pages requires users to give Copilot explicit permissions and isn’t enabled by default.
Users can also sync their website passwords with Copilot for instant access to pages that require logins. This is surely a feature that some users will find useful, but some will criticize because it means giving even more personal data to Microsoft.
Microsoft also thought about long-term projects; any tabs you open are saved alongside your chat history. When you return to a previous conversation days later, your web sources will be exactly where you left them.
This could be one of the rare Copilot updates that users eventually perceive as a positive. After receiving backlash from users caused by trying to implement Copilot into as many of its services as it could, Microsoft is now promising to “reduce AI slop.”
The new multitasking experience is rolling out now to all Windows Insider Channels right now, with the Copilot version 146.0.3856.39 and higher. Microsoft hasn’t specified when the feature will roll out to the public, but we expect it in the near future.