Copilot in Windows 11 is Getting Press to Talk in Insider Preview

Last week, Microsoft unveiled the new Copilot app in Windows 11, and this week, it’s rolling out the first of what will be several new features: Press to Talk. As with the new Copilot app, this is available only in the Windows Insider Preview Program for now–in all channels–but it should come to stable pretty quickly.

“Press to Talk allows you to interact with Copilot using your voice by using a hotkey, providing instant responses while staying in your current workflow and continuing tasks without interruption,” Microsoft explains. “To start a voice conversation with Copilot, hold the Alt + Spacebar for 2 seconds on your PC. To end your conversation, press the Esc key. If there is no speaking for several seconds, Copilot will automatically end the conversation. When the conversation is over, the microphone on the screen will disappear.”

Press to Talk requires the latest version of the new Copilot app (version 1.25024.100.0), which is starting to roll out now across all Insider channels in the Microsoft Store. I don’t see it yet, so I can’t experiment with it yet, but here’s some semi-exclusive news. This is just one of several new Copilot features that I’m aware of. In the near future, you can expect to see those other new features appear as well.

Coming new features include (the return of) the Daily Briefing, Walkie-Talkie, Windows Screen Snipping, Windows Vision, Windows Core Audio, Windows Wake Word, Windows Pro Enabled, and Windows Context. Some other new features, like Windows File Upload and Windows Context, are already implemented in this new Copilot app, I believe.

Apologies for not knowing anything about these features beyond the names, though some are easy enough to guess.