Microsoft's Edge Copilot update uses AI to pull information from across your tabs

At a glance:

• Microsoft Edge’s Copilot can now answer questions about all your open tabs, compare products, and summarize articles.
• New AI tools include a Study and Learn mode, AI-generated podcasts from tabs, a writing assistant, and a redesigned new tab page with Journeys.
• Copilot will gain long-term memory on desktop and mobile, and a screen-sharing feature for mobile app with live Q&A.

Copilot now taps into all your tabs

Microsoft is rolling out a significant update to Edge’s Copilot, expanding its ability to pull information from across your open tabs. Instead of confining its context to a single page, the chatbot can now answer queries about everything you have open — whether that’s comparing products listed on different e-commerce tabs, summarizing news articles, or cross-referencing data. According to Microsoft, you can “select which experiences you want or leave off the ones you don’t,” giving users control over how broadly Copilot can reach.

This feature draws on the same underlying agentic framework that powered the now-retired Copilot Mode, which previously allowed the assistant to book reservations and perform autonomous actions. Microsoft has folded those agentic capabilities into its existing Browse with Copilot tool, meaning users can still delegate multi-step tasks — just through a different interface. The retirement of Copilot Mode marks a consolidation of Microsoft’s AI strategy for Edge, aiming for simpler, more predictable interactions.

A suite of new AI tools for Edge

Beyond tab-wide queries, Microsoft is adding several other AI-powered features to Edge. The most notable is a Study and Learn mode that can transform the article you’re reading into an interactive study session or quiz. For audio learners, a new tool converts your open tabs into AI-generated podcasts, reminiscent of Google’s NotebookLM feature. A writing assistant will also pop up when you begin typing on a webpage, offering suggestions and refinements.

Additionally, Edge’s new tab page is being redesigned to merge chat, search, and web navigation into a single unified panel. This page includes the Journeys feature, which uses AI to organize your browsing history into categorized sessions you can revisit later. These additions collectively aim to turn Edge from a passive browser into an active productivity partner.

Privacy and memory features

Microsoft is also expanding Copilot’s ability to personalize responses. You can now grant Copilot permission to access your entire browsing history, which the company says will provide “more relevant, high-quality answers.” Furthermore, Copilot on both desktop and mobile will come with long-term memory — it can remember details from previous conversations and tailor future interactions accordingly.

These memory features raise familiar privacy considerations. Microsoft assures users that clear visual cues will appear whenever Copilot is active, “so you know when it’s taking an action, helping, listening, or viewing.” The company allows users to toggle permissions per session, and the “At a glance” controls let you opt in or out of specific experiences. However, the decision to grant browsing-history access remains a conscious choice on each user’s part.

Mobile improvements and screen sharing

The mobile version of Edge is getting its own headline feature: screen sharing with Copilot. When you start a conversation, you can share your screen and then ask questions about what you’re seeing in real time. Microsoft says Copilot will show “clear visual cues” for its active state — whether it’s listening, viewing, helping, or taking an action. This moves Copilot closer to a true visual assistant for mobile browsing, enabling walkthrough-style support.

These mobile updates continue a broader trend of AI assistants gaining multimodal capabilities, blending live screen context with conversational AI. For Edge users on the go, it means you could, for example, share a complex form or map and get step-by-step guidance from Copilot without needing to describe the layout in text.

The bigger picture: Microsoft's AI assistant strategy

With this update, Microsoft is clearly betting on tight integration between its browser and its Copilot AI, positioning Edge as a central hub for AI-augmented browsing. The feature set goes well beyond simple chatbot queries, offering study tools, podcast generation, memory, and multimodal screen sharing. At the same time, the retirement of Copilot Mode suggests Microsoft is iterating fast, consolidating features that didn’t gain traction into more cohesive tools like Browse with Copilot.

For users, the value lies in reducing context switching — instead of manually tabbing between pages or copying text into a separate AI interface, Copilot does the work inside the browser. The long-term memory and history access promise more personal answers, though they also demand trust in Microsoft’s data-handling practices. As AI assistants become more ambient, Edge’s update sets a new baseline for what a browser-based assistant can do, and competitors like Google Chrome with its built-in Gemini integration will likely respond in kind.