Microsoft spent two years selling two Copilots. One was the consumer chat. The other sat next to Word and Outlook. This month they started folding both into a single app, and they took a few experiments with them.

TechCrunch had the merge on August 13. Microsoft’s support notes say the consumer Copilot app and Microsoft 365 Copilot become one login. You can switch between a personal account and a work account. The chats stay in their own buckets. Files the old standalone app made are supposed to land in OneDrive.

The interesting part is what they killed. As of August 18, Group Chat is gone. So are the AI-generated podcasts, Copilot Labs, and Deep Research on the consumer side. Researcher still covers that last one if you pay for Microsoft 365. The floating mascot, Mico — Clippy’s cousin — is out too. Microsoft said some other buttons may blink out while the new app rolls. Phones and the web are already moving. Windows and Mac catch up in mid-September.

That is a product cleanup, not a fire drill. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini have been doing the same thing: one place, fewer side doors. If someone still has two Copilot icons on the taskbar, one of them is on a clock. A lot of shops around Chandler used the consumer app for “quick questions” and the work app for mail. Those are about to be one icon and two hats. Worth knowing which hat is on before a customer list lands in a personal chat.

As a Microsoft-certified MSP, we do sell Copilot. We help keep work and personal chats in the right hat when the icons change. My I.T. Consultants, 109 S. Murchison St., Suite C, Athens. (903) 675-5431.

Sources:

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/13/microsoft-kills-off-unsuccessful-ai-features-while-merging-its-separate-copilot-apps/

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-microsoft-copilot-app-merger/