Windows 11’s AI-Powered Recall Feature Will Enter Public Testing in October

Microsoft is finally getting ready to properly test its new Recall feature on Windows 11 with the public. After delaying the feature on Copilot+ PCs over privacy concerns, the company announced today that it will start testing the AI-powered feature with Windows Insiders in October.

“With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall (preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we’re sharing an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders starting in October,” the company said today in an update to a previous blog post. As previously shared on June 13, we have adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available for all Copilot+ PCs. Security continues to be our top priority and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we will publish a blog with more details.”

Microsoft says the Recall feature for Copilot+ PCs will be made available again to Windows Insiders starting in October.

Catch-up quick: Microsoft made changes to and then temporarily pulled the feature earlier this year amid privacy and other concerns.https://t.co/JwSL1pXZP5

— Ina Fried (@inafried) August 21, 2024

Recall is one of the flagship new AI features that Microsoft planned to introduce on the first new Copilot+  PCs that launched in June. These PCs came with Windows 11 version 24H2 and a new NPU from Qualcomm that is one of the hardware requirements for Recall and other AI features exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, including Automatic super resolution and Paint Cocreator.

Recall is designed to take snapshots of everything users do on their PCs to help them quickly find documents, images, websites, and more. These snapshots are stored locally, and users can choose which apps and websites to filter out of their snapshots.

To address privacy concerns over Recall, Microsoft announced in June that it was making some changes to how the feature works. Recall will now be off by default, and users on Copilot+ PCs will now need to proactively choose to turn it on during the set-up experience. Microsoft also made Windows Hello enrollment a new requirement to enable Recall, and the company also added additional layers of data protection to local Recall snapshots.

Even though Microsoft has been listening to feedback, a feature like Recall is still guaranteed to be perceived as intrusive by many Windows users. If taking the time to properly test the feature with Windows Insiders is the right thing to do, the FUD around Recall is probably not going away anytime soon.