Microsoft postpones controversial Recall feature for Copilot

Microsoft has decided not to make the Recall feature available when it releases Copilot+ PCs in mid-June. The company wants to test the feature more extensively after several developers and security experts criticized Recall's security.

“We are delaying the release of Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community and ensure the feature meets our high standards for quality and security,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post update on Thursday. It is not yet known when the new test version of Recall will be available to Windows Insiders participants.

In late May, Recall was announced as a prominent feature of Copilot+ PCs, which will launch on June 18. Microsoft describes Recall as a 'photographic memory for Windows'. The feature takes screenshots several times a minute that are then placed in a timeline by AI. Not long after the feature became available in the Windows Insiders program, it was met with widespread criticism from developers and security experts.

Microsoft claims that it stores the data locally and only the user has access to the screenshots. However, security researcher Kevin Beaumont showed that external devices that don't officially support Recall can still access the feature. Microsoft leaker Albacore had also already managed to get Recall running on a low-end PC with a Snapdragon 7cx+ Gen3. Another disadvantage of Recall is that it does not automatically remove sensitive information, such as passwords, from screenshots.

In response to the aforementioned criticism, Microsoft added more security measures to Recall last week and made the feature opt-in.