Microsoft has begun publicly rolling out its controversial Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs

Microsoft has finally begun rolling out its highly controversial and long-awaited Windows Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs, following a year-long delay caused by user backlash and concerns over privacy and security. Originally announced in May 2024, Recall was postponed due to criticism over how it constantly recorded all user activity on the PC, the lack of transparency around data handling and storage, and the fact that it was initially enabled by default.

Recall functions as an "AI-powered time machine" for PCs, continuously capturing thousands of snapshots of apps, websites, and all types of content users interact with, helping them search and retrace any of their digital activities using natural language through multimodal search with text recognition and context-aware visual analysis. Since its initial delay, Microsoft has been refining these features with Windows Insiders since November 2024, focusing on addressing most of the security concerns ahead of the public rollout. After several revisions, Recall is now an opt-in feature that users must enable during setup, with all captured data stored locally, encrypted, and protected through Windows Hello authentication, while also allowing users to control which apps or pages are captured and delete snapshots at any time.

Alongside Recall, Microsoft is also adding Click to Do, an extesion of Recall which offers AI-driven shortcuts for tasks like page summarization and text rewriting. This feature can be activated through various methods, including a dedicated button in compatible apps. Additionally, the company is enhancing the default Windows Search feature with AI capabilities, allowing users to search for files by describing them rather than relying on exact names. These updates are part of the April 2025 non-security preview update, available as an optional setting.