Microsoft is merging its consumer-facing Copilot app with the business-oriented Microsoft 365 Copilot app into a single, more cohesive product. As part of this consolidation, several underperforming features are being retired by August 18, 2026, including Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs experimental features, Deep Research (replaced by Researcher for paying professional users), and the Mico animated character. Files from the standalone Copilot app will migrate to OneDrive, and some features may temporarily disappear during the transition. The move mirrors similar consolidation trends at Anthropic (merging Cowork into Chat), OpenAI (merging Operator into ChatGPT), and Google (adding deep research and browsing to Gemini). An internal memo reportedly said Copilot needed to 'earn the right to exist' by dropping features that didn't work.
Questions this post answers
What Copilot features is Microsoft removing and when?
Microsoft is retiring Group Chats, AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs experimental features, and Deep Research from the consumer Copilot app by August 18, 2026. It is also removing the Mico animated character. Paying Microsoft 365 Copilot professional users get Researcher as a replacement for Deep Research, and files from the standalone app will migrate to OneDrive. Track how Copilot's feature set shifts by following AI tool changes on daily.dev.
Why is Microsoft merging the consumer Copilot app with Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft is combining the two apps because personal and professional AI use cases increasingly overlap, and because running two separate Copilot products made it hard to compete with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Microsoft EVP Jacob Andreou reportedly told staff internally that Copilot needed to earn the right to exist by cutting features that weren't working. Developers evaluating AI assistant platforms can watch this consolidation trend unfold on daily.dev.