Edge Copilot Now Reads All Your Open Tabs
SkimNews Take
Integrating Copilot directly into Edge's core browser functionality, rather than as a separate mode, blurs the line between operating system and application, making the browser a more central hub for user interaction.
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- Microsoft Edge is letting Copilot gather information from all open tabs, enabling it to answer questions, compare products, and summarize articles users are browsing.
- Microsoft is retiring Copilot Mode, which offered similar tab-drawing features plus agentic capabilities like booking reservations; those agentic features have been folded into a new "Browse with Copilot" tool.
- Edge is adding a "Study and Learn" mode that turns articles into study sessions or quizzes, a tool that converts tabs into AI-powered podcasts similar to NotebookLM, and an AI writing assistant that appears when typing on a webpage.
- Copilot can be granted permission to access browsing history for "more relevant, high-quality answers," and will gain "long-term memory" on desktop and mobile to tailor responses based on previous conversations.
- Edge's new tab page has been redesigned to combine chat, search, and web navigation, including a Journeys feature that uses AI to organize browsing history into revisitable categories.
- Edge's mobile app update will let users share their screen with Copilot and talk through questions about what's on-screen, with Microsoft promising "clear visual cues" indicating when Copilot is active, listening, or viewing.
Why it matters: Microsoft is repositioning Edge as a cross-tab AI research tool rather than a single-page chatbot. Users gain summarization and comparison features but grant Copilot access to browsing history, tab content, and mobile screens — feeding more personalized, data-hungry responses across every surface they browse.
