Microsoft has launched Android and iOS apps for its AI-powered productivity assistant, Copilot.
The Copilot mobile app is functionally reminiscent of OpenAI's ChatGPT mobile version, featuring a clean interface in which users have access can write prompts to ask questions, summarise text, draft emails, blogs and documents. Users can also generate images by leveraging its DALL-E 3 image creator technology.
The app also includes access to one of OpenAI's latest LLMs, GPT-4, which users have to pay for access to via ChatGPT — the free ChatGPT service still utilises GPT-3.5.
Users can download the Android app from the Google Play Store and the iOS version from the Apple App Store.
Launching Copilot mobile apps underlines Microsoft's commitment to the service's rebranding, with Copilot for Windows (and now mobile) largely a revitalised version of the AI-powered Bing Chat, which leveraged a ChatGPT-echoing UI but organically integrated within the Bing search engine, which launched early last year. However, Bing Chat, and its business-targeting sister product Bing Chat Enterprise, were folded into the Copilot umbrella in November.
What's Been the Copilot Story So Far?
The consumer-centric desktop version, Windows Copilot, has been out since September and is “seamlessly available across all the apps and experiences you use most”, as described by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, including Office 365, Bing and Windows. It can be accessed through the taskbar with the Win+C keyboard shortcut, providing essential assistance alongside every app.
Also out now is the enterprise-focused 365 Copilot, which launched on November 1. What 365 Copilot offers beyond Windows Copilot is commercial data protection, guaranteed security, privacy and compliance, the AI-powered Microsoft 365 Chat, and integration across the Microsoft 365 Apps. Copilot costs $30 per user per month and will be is available for users with Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium users.
In November, Microsoft announced the “next-generation” of OneDrive, which included new file views, governance controls, creation tools, and Copilot. Copilot with OneDrive became available last month for Microsoft 365 subscribers to search, organise, and retrieve information from their OneDrive files.
In October, Microsoft promised Copilot customers legal protections around copyright. As worries over the legal risks of how AI processes copyright-protected IP continue to mount, the Copilot Copyright Commitment intends to address questions around IP infringement among those aiming to sign up for Copilot.
