It seems like Microsoft is hellbent on shoving Copilot down the throats of all of its customers. Earlier today, we found out that the company is working on a massive upgrade for Visual Studio, with the focus being its conversion to an AI-powered integrated development environment (IDE). Now, a new report claims that Microsoft is testing a news feed powered by Copilot in Windows 11.
Zac Bowden from Windows Central reports that the Redmond tech firm is testing a new layout for the news feed in the Windows 11 widgets board, which utilizes AI rather than the classic MSN feed. This is being called Copilot Discover, and as the name suggests, it uses AI to curate your feed based on your perceived likes and interests.
In his testing so far, Bowden claims that the Copilot Discover feed is much faster than the current version, and the animations and scrolling mechanisms are less laggy too. In addition, the layout isn"t as cluttered, as the news stories are present in larger boxes with a bigger font size. As you hover over the stories, you can upvote or downvote them, follow or block outlets, and bookmark individual items. Embedded videos inside the boxes begin playing automatically too. There"s also a Notifications button at the top that highlights breaking news and stock market fluctuations, and these can be customized or disabled.
It is important to note that while the layout is powered by Copilot Discover, the news stories themselves still come from MSN, so clicking on any item will take you to the MSN website. That said, some stories directly open inside the Widgets panel, which is a major improvement in terms of UX.
Talking more about the UX, it seems like the widgets have been moved to a separate Widgets tab in the board. The board itself can no longer become full screen and, in the same vein, the Weather widget can"t be moved or resized either. That said, it is important to note that this UX is still under development so things may change down the line. We don"t even know for sure yet if it will see the light of day, but we"ll likely find out in future Insider builds of Windows 11.
Source and images: Windows Central