"Coming soon to your PC with Copilot+: the controversial AI feature Windows 11 Reminder."
The unsettling artificial intelligence feature called Recall from Microsoft, which maps your activities on a timeline, will be available soon.
As artificial intelligence advances, its integration into personal devices is becoming increasingly common, and major tech companies are introducing new features that require access to our private information and resources to provide a better experience. While some users find this useful, others find it unsettling. One example is Microsoft's new feature, AI Recall, which takes screenshots of all activities performed on a PC with Copilot+, making it easier to find specific information later.
Following its announcement last year and several delays, Recall is being rolled out to a wider group of Windows 11 users. Microsoft has stated that this feature is available in the latest update of the Windows 11 release channel, under version 26100.3902 (KB5055627). This addition in the preview release channel means that Recall is in its early deployment phases for those owners of a Copilot+-compatible PC, which currently includes a range of laptops equipped with neural processing units (NPU) intended for AI tasks; it may soon be expanded to desktops.
Recall was designed to be activated in October of last year, but initially, it was only available to users of Windows 11 developer and beta versions. The tool is designed to leverage the AI capabilities of PCs with Copilot+, allowing users to “quickly find any app, website, image, or document simply by describing its content.” This is achieved by collecting “snapshots” of activities performed on the PC, which can be referenced in a dedicated app that displays this information on an interactive timeline.
Despite Microsoft's claims that these actions are performed securely and that screenshots cannot be accessed without physical access to the device, concerns have arisen about user privacy invasion. Since its announcement, worries have emerged, and even the UK's data protection agency has begun to pay attention to the issue. Additionally, there is frustration that the Recall feature cannot be uninstalled, although users can choose to disable the snapshot collection. This feature would not be available on older desktops or laptops that do not meet the Copilot+ approval.
Alongside Recall, Microsoft is introducing a feature called “Click to Do,” which allows users to work with any visible text or media on the screen, offering an additional set of options, similar to Google's Circle-to-Search feature. Search tools for settings and files on Windows PCs are also being enhanced, allowing for more intuitive search queries.
As these features are rolled out in the preview channel, a concrete timeline for their arrival in the stable channels has not yet been defined, but additional details are expected to be shared in the near future.
