Formally introduced last month after being tested for about a year, Microsoft's Copilot for Android and iOS devices has just received a major update that adds a new UI. Rolling out in waves, the update brings a more streamlined look and feel specifically designed to help users take advantage of Copilot's AI-powered features.

With more than 5 billion chats and 5 billion images created to date, Copilot is slowly becoming one of the biggest AI-powered tools available. The chatbot developed by Microsoft allows users to go beyond just creative images to now customize their generated images with inline editing right inside the app thanks to Designer.

Although some of the features offered by Copilot require a subscription, almost all of them have a free version that at least allows users to figure out if they're worth paying for.

For example, Copilot Pro subscribers can also resize and regenerate images between square and landscape without leaving chat, in addition to customizing the images with Designer.

Finally, Microsoft announced that it will soon roll out the new Designer GPT inside Copilot, offering users a more immersive, dedicated canvas inside the chatbot.

Microsoft's Copilot is available for free and works on Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. All the changes announced this week will be rolled out on iOS, Android, and the web.

Towards the end of 2023, Microsoft launched Copilot, its AI powered virtual assistant. If you feel that its features are a bit limited, then you're in luck as Microsoft has announced Copilot Pro. This is a subscription program that will unlock additional features of Copilot AI.

Microsoft says that Copilot Pro was created with two types of AI users in mind. This includes power users and those who might want to see deeper integration of Copilot within Microsoft's other products and services, like Microsoft 365.

With the subscription, users will be able to gain priority access to the latest AI models during peak times. Microsoft also says that there will be improved image generation of 100 boosts per day. It will include better and more detailed image quality and landscape image formats. Copilot Pro will also allow users to build their own Copilot GPT in the Copilot GPT Builder.

This will come in handy for users and organizations that want a more tailored AI for specific internal uses. Lastly, Copilot Pro will also grant access to the AI in Microsoft 365 across all platforms for Personal and Family subscribers.

Copilot Pro will cost $20 a month. For context, OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus costs the same minus the Microsoft integration. If you think that this will be useful for your needs, then this could be worth checking out.

If you're not a fan of chatbots, we get it. Many of the chatbots back in the day felt clunky and while they were designed to be "smart", it didn't really feel that way. That has changed considerably with the launch of AI technology and LLMs, and if you're looking for an upgraded experience, Microsoft's Copilot app is now available for download.

For those who are unfamiliar, Microsoft Copilot is basically a chatbot app powered by LLM, meaning that you can chat with it like you would a human being using natural language and the AI will be able to understand what you're asking of it. Copilot is powered by OpenAI's GPT-4 and DALL-E 3 so if you've used those before, then the experience should be similar.

It is also free to use, and if you don't have a Microsoft account, not to worry as it will still be able to offer up its core functionality. You will need a Microsoft account if you want to use DALL-E 3 to generate images, but otherwise you can use the app without having to sign in at all, which is a nice touch.

Google has been rumored to be working on something similar for Android, but in the meantime, if you want a better virtual assistant that understands you better and can pull up more relevant data from the web, then Copilot might be worth checking out.

The problem with passwords is that they work best when you choose a strong and unique password that's different for every online service you use. This means that you'll have to remember each and every single password, which is near impossible, which is also why people tend to use easy-to-remember passwords.

This leaves them open to being hacked, which is why in recent years, we're starting to see passkeys gain more traction. The good news for Windows 11 users is that Microsoft is finally bringing support for passkeys to its operating system. Passkeys support was initially available in June earlier this year for Windows Insider, but in the latest update, all Windows 11 users should be able to take advantage of it.

According to Microsoft, passkeys will be available for a variety of desktop browsers including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Mozilla's Firefox, just to name a few. So as long as the website you're trying to sign into supports passkeys, you'll be able to take advantage of the login method.

So what are passkeys? For those unfamiliar, passkeys are an alternative to traditional passwords. They don't require users to remember the password to their accounts because users are authenticated using other devices like their phones. For example, logging into a website that supports passkeys might send a notification on your phone to verify that it is you, and this can be done by using your phone's security features like facial recognition, fingerprints, or PIN unlock.

In the case of Windows 11, passkeys will be integrated with Windows Hello, which is Microsoft's biometric security system that relies on either facial or fingerprint recognition, as well as PIN codes.

While Android devices have generally gotten better in terms of software updates, there are still some situations where a handset might receive a limited amount of major Android system patches. This looks to be the case for Microsoft's debut foldable device, the original Surface Duo.

With that being said, Microsoft recently announced on its official support page that it has ended software support for the Surface Duo, which received its last security patch on September 10, 2023. According to Microsoft's announcement:

Surface Android devices will receive Android version and security updates for at least 3 years from its release date (September 10, 2020). In cases where the support duration is longer than 3 years, an updated end of servicing date will be published 18 months before expiration of the last planned servicing date.

Meanwhile, the Surface Duo 2 will continue to receive security updates until October 21, 2024. This is understandable as the device is of course newer, and featured Android 11 at the time of its release. The Duo 2 made its debut back in 2021, and received the Android 12L update a year ago.