Microsoft is combining its two Copilot apps into one
Microsoft is combining their two Copilot apps into one application, bringing the consumer Copilot app and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app together under a single name, icon and web address. The change will take place gradually over the next several weeks.
It means the end of having two Copilot apps with similar icons on the taskbar.
That was always silly, confusing and annoying. The most obvious sign of the chaotic way Microsoft is trying to force Copilot onto customers.
For most people this might seem like rebranding and navigation change, not a rebuild. However, the app merging is more than cosmetic, it’s really a big change with many limitations smuggled in under the guise of “combining the two app experiences”.
The real shift is underneath: one app will handle both your work life and your personal life, with an account switcher instead of two separate downloads. That’s great and long overdue but not the whole story.
How this affects you
If you currently juggle both Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot apps, they become one. Chat history and content from both merge into a single updated Copilot app, though chats, content and data stay separate between account types inside it.
If you only used the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, you get something for nothing. Users who had the Microsoft 365 Copilot app without a Microsoft 365 subscription now get access to Copilot chat at no extra cost, with no changes needed to their account.
If you only used the consumer Copilot app, you get access to your Office material from inside the chat window. Microsoft says the updated app lets you reach Word, Excel, Outlook, other Microsoft 365 apps, files and content directly, and connect email, calendar and cloud storage so Copilot has context.
The merge of Copilot apps has NO effect on Copilot within the Microsoft 365 programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
Copilot on the web at https://copilot.microsoft.com remains an option and sometimes a better choice because you can open multiple browser windows across more than one Microsoft account.
You will not need to do anything.
Most updates should happen automatically, existing users are guided through the transition, and web users are redirected to the updated version.
The one exception is phones: mobile users of the consumer Copilot app need to download an updated version to keep using it.
Work and personal stay walled off
You can sign into the updated app with a personal account, a work or school account, or both, and switch between them with the account switcher exactly as you do today. Work and personal experiences remain separated by design and data does not flow between them. Personal Microsoft accounts and work Entra accounts stay distinct, and commercial data boundaries, tenant controls and compliance protections are not changing.
Microsoft also says employers will not be able to see personal activity, and enterprise security, compliance and administrative controls remain unchanged.
Each account type triggers a different background color in the app, which is the visual cue telling you which side of the wall you are standing on. Typing a personal question into a work account, or worse, pasting company material into a personal chat, is now an easier mistake to make.
The web address changes
The business web address moves. The browser URL transitions from https://m365.cloud.microsoft to https://copilot.cloud.microsoft
The old site will redirect to the new one beginning in late August.
Updated technology
The Windows and Mac desktop apps also get an updated architecture, which Microsoft says will support future enhancements.
It appears that the new app will be essentially web-based Copilot inside a separately installed desktop-app wrapper. It uses Microsoft’s Edge technology, but it is not a conventional Edge-installed PWA (Progressive Web App).
It’ll be interesting to see how much the new app gobbles up memory, as another PWA, Outlook (new), is doing.
Rollout dates
People will see the change at different times.
Migration started in early-August with a small group of Windows Insiders and expands more broadly in the following weeks.
Worldwide rollout starts with mobile and web in mid-August. Windows and Mac apps follow in mid-September.
Why now?
The commercial numbers explain the hurry. Microsoft is struggling to get their customers paying for AI.
Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats last month, up from 20 million in April, but that’s only around 7 percent of the more than 450 million commercial Microsoft 365 paid seats.
ChatGPT claims around 1.2 billion monthly users; Gemini: just over one billion; Claude: approximately 250 million. At best Microsoft can claim about 70 million paid Copilot users (38.5 million consumers plus 30 million paid business seats). That’s a poor result for Microsoft considering their market share across many tech platforms.
Two Copilot apps was silly
Having two apps was always daft and a sign of haphazard way Microsoft has rolled out Copilot generally. Having one app is what should have happened from the start and would have been if Microsoft truly listened to their customers and their own sensible staff.
The previous two app strategy was too complicated for Copilot to compete with ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
And this is a foundation, not a finish line. The unified app is a key step but is not itself the launch of the Super App, which will bring Copilot chat, AI coding, Cowork and new AutoPilot agents into a single app. That comes later in the year, bringing Copilot into line with the all-encompassing apps already available from Claude and ChatGPT.
The hidden agenda
Behind the merging of the two Copilot apps is a string of changes designed to reduce Microsoft’s costs and get more money from customers.
So many changes that we’ve devoted a whole separate article to what’s happening behind the façade of a ‘simple’ combining two apps.