LG to Make Microsoft Copilot App on its Smart TVs Fully Removable

LG recently made headlines after users of its recent smart TVs noticed a new Microsoft Copilot app on their app gallery. The app is automatically preinstalled when users install the latest version of LG’s webOS on their smart TVs, with no way to fully uninstall it.

While it’s currently possible to “hide” this Copilot icon from the webOS app gallery, LG acknowledged that its heavy-handed approach to promote Microsoft’s assistant wasn’t the best way to please its customers already paying a premium for their smart TVs. Worse, Microsoft Copilot on LG TVs isn’t a real app, it just opens Copilot on the web, and in my own experience, it doesn’t work that well.

Speaking with The Verge, LG spokesperson Chris De Maria confirmed that Copilot is just a web app and “provided as a shortcut icon to enhance customer accessibility and convenience.” The company representative added that “features such as microphone input are activated only with the customer’s explicit consent.”

Lastly, owners who want to get rid of this Copilot app will eventually be able to do so, though there’s no “definitive timing” yet. In the meantime, users can still hide the app from their home screen and never think about it again.