Microsoft's Controversial 'Recall' AI Feature Set for October Beta Release

Controversial Recall feature to roll out to Windows Insiders beginning in October

We said it was gone but not forgotten, and now Microsoft is bringing it back. The controversial Windows Recall feature appears to be ready to make a comeback. Microsoft announced in an updated blog post on Wednesday it will begin rolling the AI feature, available only on Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11, to members of the Windows Insider program in October. Microsoft paused its rollout of Windows Recall shortly after it began testing it in the Windows Insider Canary channel. The software giant hit the pause button after multiple security concerns about the new feature were raised. Recall, If you recall, is a new feature available only on Copilot+ PCs that periodically takes screenshots of your active windows on your PC, analyzes them on-device using a neural processing unit (NPU) and an AI model, and inputs that analysis into an SQLite database. The user can then query that database using natural language searches to retrieve relevant screenshots. The problem was with the security (or lack thereof) built into the feature. Researchers discovered the SQLite database was accessible to other users on the PC, either locally or remotely via malware. Microsoft announced major changes to encrypt the database and require a Windows Hello login to use Recall, then pulled the feature from even the Canary channel by mid-June. When released, Recall will remain available only on computers meeting specific hardware requirements. The computer will need an NPU capable of performing at least 40 TOPS. The current complete list of requirements, other than the minimum requirements to even run Windows 11, include: Microsoft will release the Recall feature to the Windows Insider program to "leverage the valuable expertise" of those users before making it available to the general public. It has yet to be announced whether it will release Recall only to the Canary build channel. Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft's corporate vice president, Windows + Devices, noted, "Security continues to be our top priority, and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October, we will publish a blog with more details." We'll have more details when Microsoft releases the blog post in October detailing how to install an Insider build, including Recall.

Microsoft Recall AI release date is now official

After a previous delay, the tech giant has announced that its new Microsoft Recall AI feature will be available for Windows Insiders testing in October. The highly anticipated AI-powered tool takes screenshots of everything you do on a compatible Windows PC and compiles a database of your actions, allowing you to search through it if needed. The Recall feature was met with controversy due to security concerns raised by experts and the public. Microsoft attempted to address these issues by making Recall opt-in, but not everyone was convinced. At least one government agency investigated Microsoft over Recall, further highlighting the importance of resolving the cybersecurity concerns surrounding this feature. In October, Windows Insiders will gain access to Microsoft Recall AI, although the exact date remains unspecified. The release is a crucial step for Microsoft as it seeks to implement its innovative technology while ensuring the highest levels of security and privacy protection for users. As Windows Insiders begin testing Recall in October, they can expect more details about how Microsoft has addressed the security concerns surrounding this feature. With the company's commitment to leveraging the expertise of its Windows Insider community, we can expect a robust and secure version of Microsoft Recall AI that will ultimately benefit all users. Need a small recap on how Microsoft Recall AI works? Well let's take a look at it once again from the introduction video of Microsoft Copilot+ PCs: People were upset with Microsoft's Recall AI for several reasons: These issues led to significant backlash from both users and critics, prompting Microsoft to address and manage these concerns more carefully. You thought Windows' Recall was a privacy nightmare? Adobe just topped it up! If you're concerned about your privacy and don't want to be part of Microsoft's massive data collection experiment, you can disable the Windows 11 Recall feature easily. Here's how: By following these steps, you can prevent Windows 11 from recording your actions and sending them back to Microsoft. While this may limit the Recall feature's usefulness, it will also protect your privacy and mitigate potential security risks associated with data collection. In the end, the release of Microsoft's Recall feature is an exciting development in the world of technology, offering a unique solution for users who need to recall specific actions or tasks performed on their PCs. While concerns over security have been raised, Microsoft's commitment to addressing these issues and leveraging its Windows Insider community ensures that a secure and reliable version of Recall will be available soon.

Microsoft's revised Recall AI feature will roll out to beta testers in October

Microsoft's Windows Recall feature, which stores a timeline of activity snapshots on your PC, has a new release date for Windows Insiders. Microsoft unveiled the feature to much fanfare in May, only to delay it indefinitely (after blowback from security researchers) a few weeks later. After taking time to recalibrate, the company said on Wednesday it will roll out Recall to beta testers using Copilot+ PCs in October. Windows Recall stores snapshots of everything you do on your PC. Designed as a "photographic memory" for your PC activity, it lets you revisit things like products, emails, documents or chats shown on your screen. The feature's perks are easy to see, especially for those who spend long hours on their PC (or those with foggy memories). But if that also sounds like a privacy nightmare, security researchers thought so, too. Despite safety assurances from Microsoft during its announcement at Build 2024, cybersecurity and privacy experts sounded the alarm. The fundamental problem was that intruders wouldn't only get goodies from your traditional file system if they accessed your PC. In addition, they could see anything you've done on your computer from the moment you activated Recall to the present. That's because Microsoft -- for reasons we can't quite comprehend (other than put AI in all the things as quickly as possible) -- left Recall's data unencrypted. As security expert Kevin Beaumont detailed, Recall didn't hide sensitive information like passwords or banking details. Sure, your timeline was theoretically safe as long as nobody could access your PC. But if you accidentally installed malware or let an intruder in through other means, they would find a motherlode of sensitive -- unencrypted -- data. In response to the blowback, Microsoft added some common-sense security features that left us wondering why they weren't there in the first place. Again, it's hard to decipher the company's motives for that omission when the feature was announced -- other than speculating that it wanted to prioritize a seamless user experience over tight security. These security changes included making the feature opt-in instead of enabled by default when setting up a Copilot+ PC. In addition, Microsoft said the feature would require Windows Hello -- a face or fingerprint scan -- and deploy "just in time" decryption (only unlocked through Hello). That means if a hacker gains access to your computer, your screenshot timeline should remain encrypted unless you lend your face or finger to unlock it (or they somehow find a way around Hello's encryption). Microsoft says it will publish a new blog post when the feature is available in October through the Windows 11 Insider Program. The feature will require a CoPilot+ PC (the first of which launched in June) with a compatible chip. That chip list includes Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite, although Intel may have its first CoPilot+ chips out in the wild when the feature finally arrives in preview.

Windows Recall set for a return -- when you can expect this controversial feature to appear

Windows Insiders with Copilot + PCs are set to get an updated version of the AI feature After a rough launch in May, Microsoft went back to the drawing board with the maligned Windows Recall feature, announcing the feature was delayed indefinitely. But now it sounds like Recall's recall is coming to an end. Specifically, the AI-powered feature appears to be slowly getting ready for a return. In an announcement on the Windows blog, Microsoft announced that Windows Insiders -- basically, beta testers for the company -- will get access to a preview of Recall this October. The last update to the blog int ehsame moth when Microsoft recalled the AI feature. At the time, they announced it would come to Windows Insiders "in the coming weeks." Microsoft further added in a blog post that the company wanted to "ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security." Almost immediately, Recall saw several security safeguards added that were surprisingly missing. These included: If you put Recall out of mind once Microsoft disappeared the feature, Windows Recall takes snapshots of everything you do on your Copilot + PC. It was initially described as a "photographic memory" for your computer activity. Essentially, it will let you revisit and search through emails, documents, and chats to find information. It sounds like a neat feature but as soon as it was announced security researchers were immediately warning that the feature was easily exploitable and a potential security "disaster". Security expert Kevin Beaumont found that Recall didn't hide sensitive information like passwords. From our understanding, the issue is that Microsoft bafflingly left Recall data unencrypted. We can only speculate, but the rush to shove AI into everything this year has left companies pushing underbaked features and ideas through product pipelines without much in the way of guardrails. Basically, it was an open door if you ever accidentally installed malware or got hacked via other means. Similar to Google's AI Overviews controversy, Microsoft and Google got caught trying to shove their mitts into the AI cookie jar. While both companies have pulled back these specific AI tools, they're still forging ahead with AI. And as you can see neither tool has gone away completely. But hopefully, sometime back in the labs is creating better, more functional, and most importantly, safer tools. Outside of this week's announcement, Microsoft said a blog with details on how to access the revamped Recall preview will come in October. It will most likely require a Copilot + PC, which began releasing in June.

Recall just got a release date window for Windows PCs. Here's when you'll get to test it.

Everyone's "favorite" Copilot feature is back. Credit: Jaque Silva/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The most controversial new Windows feature in years is making its grand re-entrance in a couple of months. After a previous, open-ended delay announced in mid-June, Microsoft announced via an update to an old blog post that its new "Recall" feature will be available for Windows Insiders testing in October. "As previously shared on June 13, we have adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available for all Copilot+ PCs," Microsoft's blog update said. "Security continues to be our top priority and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we will publish a blog with more details." In October, Windows Insiders will gain access to Recall, though the exact date remains unspecified. At least, we think so. Recall was announced in May as a potentially life-changing AI feature that constantly takes screenshots of everything you do on a compatible Windows PC, then studies those screenshots to build a database of all your actions that you can search through if needed. The only problem is that Recall was immediately flagged as a massive cybersecurity problem, considering the fact that it actively and purposely compiles a history of everything a user does on a PC. Microsoft tried to put a band-aid on the situation by making Recall opt-in, but by then, the damage was done -- and at least one government agency was investigating Microsoft over Recall. We'll have to wait for Microsoft's blog post to find out how (if at all) the company has addressed the security concerns with Recall. But at least it won't be a long wait.

Windows Recall is coming back to PCs in October, as part of the Insider Program

Microsoft's controversial Windows Recall feature is coming back. The tech giant recently announced on its official blog that the feature will be made available to testers on the Windows Insider Program in October of 2024. Once ready, it will roll out to all Copilot Plus PCs, though no exact time frame was given. To give you a quick refresher, Windows Recall was originally met with intense pushback when it was announced in May. It utilizes artificial intelligence to take screenshots of everything you do on a Windows 11 computer, aiming to keep a detailed record. A user could, for example, go back and locate lost files or remind them of past conversations. The company assured everyone it was totally safe, but people weren't buying it. They didn't trust the brand due to their shoddy reputation of keeping user data secure. You even had cybersecurity researcher Alexander Hagenah demonstrate that it's actually really easy for malware to steal all the data inside a Recall repository. Microsoft then recalled (pun intended) the feature soon after. Back in June, the company published an update on its website laying out everything it was going to do to the tool. Microsoft said it was first going to make it abundantly clear that users can opt out of the Recall. And it'll be "off by default." Enrolling in Windows Hello will become a requirement before activating the tool, and extra layers of protection are being added. Their post states that screenshots can "only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates" themselves. Microsoft briefly discusses the new user experience as well. A Recall window will be pinned to the taskbar whenever screenshots are saved, and you can delete images at any time. Apart from these descriptions, it's unknown if any more will be added to or changed with the relaunch. This was supposed to come out in the weeks following the first delay; however, those weeks quickly turned into months. Microsoft doesn't say why they had to push Recall back even further, although they do promise to publish more details in October. Our primary concern is how much or how little of the new package will be available to testers. There's no guarantee testers are going to gain access to every single change. It could be all of them or just one. What's more, the relaunch may not happen this year. Windows Insider Program tests typically run from a few weeks to months before seeing an official release. If Microsoft needs to make a lot of adjustments, Recall might not launch until sometime next year.

Microsoft says Windows 'Recall' preview will be available in October

Microsoft says it will release a preview of its new Windows Recall AI capabilities in October to users in the Windows Insider program, after delaying the feature from the rollout of Copilot+ PCs in June due to security concerns. The company provided the new timeframe in an update Wednesday morning to a prior post by Pavan Davuluri, Windows + Devices corporate vice president. Previously, in a June 13 update, the company had said the Recall preview would be available to Windows Insiders "in the coming weeks." "As previously shared on June 13, we have adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available for all Copilot+ PCs," the latest update reads, in part. "Security continues to be our top priority and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we will publish a blog with more details." Recall captures screenshots at short intervals, making it easier for users to quickly query their history and find information later. In response to security concerns after its May 20 announcement, Microsoft detailed plans for new levels of encryption and said Recall would be turned off by default unless activated by users during setup. The decision to delay the feature came amid broader scrutiny of Microsoft's security problems, and a pledge by the company to prioritize security over new features.

Microsoft's controversial Recall feature is coming to Windows 11 in October

After initially being put on hold, Microsoft today announced that Recall, an AI feature that takes screenshots of everything you do in Windows, will launch in October. The idea of Recall is similar to that of Pixel Screenshots on Google's new Pixel 9 series. Your screenshots become a searchable timeline of what you've done on your device, which sounds super handy. But in the leadup to the launch of CoPilot+ PCs powered by the Snapdragon X Elite, Microsoft opted to pull the feature at the last minute due to mounting security and privacy concerns. For a while, many thought that Microsoft had permanently shelved Recall, but that's not the case. In an update today, Microsoft says that Recall will still be coming to Windows 11 in October. Microsoft says that Recall will be "trustworthy and secure" when it debuts for Windows Insiders users in October. There's no word, though, on what has actually changed.

Windows Recall crawls back for round two in October

Will the controversial Recall feature be the same as how it was initially presented? Microsoft's seemingly forgotten Recall feature is still alive. In an update to a blog post originally authored in August, the company said that the controversial Recall feature will begin testing in October. "With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall (preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we're sharing an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders starting in October. As previously shared on June 13, we have adjusted our release approach to leverage the valuable expertise of our Windows Insider community prior to making Recall available for all Copilot+ PCs. Security continues to be our top priority and when Recall is available for Windows Insiders in October we will publish a blog with more details." The update didn't specify which Insider channel Recall would be tested in. Microsoft usually reserves its Canary and Dev channels for code that might ship but hasn't been fully committed to, whereas the Beta and Release Preview channels represent firmer commitments. Microsoft first announced Recall in May 2024 at a launch event right before the Microsoft Build developer conference. Recall was intended to be the flagship application of Copilot+ PCs, which would tap the NPU inside Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processor. Related: What are Copilot+ PCs? Explained Recall's premise appealed to me: a feature that takes periodic snapshots of what you see on your screen and reads those snapshots using OCR and AI, allowing you to search for snippets of information you've seen but can't remember where or when or even in what app. But privacy advocates panicked, thinking that Microsoft could archive private information in a way that could be accessible to hackers. (Recall can be turned off, Microsoft said.) Meanwhile, others were concerned with the vast amounts of storage needed to store all of that information. Microsoft eventually pulled Recall from its initial release in the Windows 11 24H2 preview build for further testing. That testing will, according to Microsoft, take place sometime this fall. Microsoft hasn't yet said if any substantive changes will be made to the Recall feature or how it operates. Presumably, those details will be announced later in the blog post alluded to by Microsoft.

Recall is alive, and it's coming to Windows Insiders soon | Digital Trends

Microsoft has confirmed in a blog update that Recall hasn't been abandoned and will be ready for Windows Insider testing in October. The announcement comes after the company was forced to rethink its AI-powered automatic screenshot-taking feature just before the first Copilot+ PCs launched due to significant security concerns. The idea behind Recall is to help people search for things they've seen on their PC. Say you're researching a topic, and you have multiple tabs open on different sources. Sometime in the past few hours, you know you read the exact fact you needed, but now you can't remember where it came from. Recommended Videos With Recall, you can type natural language prompts into the search bar and your PC will search through the screenshots it has been taking of your activity to find what you need. If your memory is failing you, you can even scroll through the screenshots yourself to jog your memory. As convenient as this sounds, the privacy concerns are immediately obvious, and most people would want to be completely sure that no one but them could ever access the screenshots. Microsoft promised this level of security from the start, but once people started getting their hands on early versions of it, they started finding holes pretty quickly. One security researcher even claimed they could access every screenshot with just two lines of code. Microsoft also initially announced Recall as default feature but quickly decided to change it to fully opt-in. But now, accessing Recall requires Windows Hello to authenticate, whether by fingerprint or facial recognition. Microsoft has also talked about "just in time" decryption, which means the search index database is fully encrypted when not being accessed. When it's released for testing, researchers will surely scour every line of code to assess how secure the feature is now, and it will be interesting to see the results and how Microsoft reacts to them. However it turns out, Recall is likely destined to not be the flagship AI feature it was designed to be. For people who have a better understanding of how it works and how it keeps screenshots safe, there could be a lot of benefit -- we'll have to see. Others, however, might remain apprehensive about entrusting such private information to a feature that keeps popping up in the news for being unsafe.

Microsoft Says Maligned Recall Feature Is Returning to Copilot+ PCs, Eventually

The feature will make its way out to Windows beta testers in October, and Microsoft claims security is its â€~top priority.’ The AI-centric Recall feature is being recalled back to Copilot+ PCs. Still, it may be a while before most Windows users on the latest ARM-based PCs can use it. Microsoft said Wednesday that the feature will first be available to Windows Insider beta testers in October in anticipation of a wider release. For those still wondering if it leaves a hole for hackers to access their PC, the company promises users won’t have to worry about their device’s security. Microsoft updated its blog post on Wednesday when it originally made the auto-screenshotting Recall feature opt-in. Now, two months after the Mountain View tech giant delayed the feature, Microsoft said it’s going to arrive on Copilot+ PCs used by those in the Windows Insider beta group. This “preview†experience is coming sometime in October, though there’s still no word when it could get a broader release. Recall was supposed to be the headline feature for Copilot+ PCs using the new Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips. The built-in program takes a screenshot of users' PCs every few minutes, then collects them in on-device for easy perusal. The program uses AI to identify words or images in the screenshots, then lets users return to any web pages they were browsing or programs and documents they had open at that time. Microsoft billed the feature as a kind of “time machine†to let users remember key sites they forgot about or documents they were working on. Skeptical Windows users made their concerns known. From the get-go, there were troubling signs. For one, Recall automatically screenshots sensitive information like passwords and financial information on their device. The feature came pre-installed on all new Copilot+ PCs and was on by default. Microsoft first claimed all users' records were safely secured on-device, but weeks before release, security researchers found that the OCRed plain text recorded by AI was stored loose in the PCs’ AppData folder. Researchers feared that if a bad actor gained access to the PC, they could siphon out loads of potentially devastating user data. Now it's a question of whether we’ll see a wider Recall release by the end of this year. On Wednesday, Microsoft said, “Security continues to be our top priority.†Microsoft has proposed using Windows Hello biometric sign-in to access its Recall snapshots. Users will also have the option to turn the feature on or off when they do their initial Windows sign-in. By default, Recall is now switched off.

Is Windows 11's big AI feature dead? Nope, Microsoft tells us - Recall is arriving in October

Windows 11's Recall feature was put on ice following a whole lot of controversy after it was revealed, but Microsoft is ready to thaw out the ability for Copilot+ PCs, it seems. When did Microsoft first announce Recall? We don't remember, so we're going to ask Copilot (Image Credit: Microsoft) Pavan Davuluri, who is Corporate VP of Windows and Devices at Microsoft, updated a previous blog post on Recall - where the news of the feature being pulled was given - to say that it's set to go live, at least in testing, in Windows 11 preview builds in October. Davuluri explained: "With a commitment to delivering a trustworthy and secure Recall (preview) experience on Copilot+ PCs for customers, we're sharing an update that Recall will be available to Windows Insiders starting in October." The note goes on to say that security is the top priority with Recall, and when the feature goes back into a preview build, Microsoft is going to publish a blog post with more details on exactly how the security and privacy aspects that got the ability yanked have been shored up. The timing is interesting, because in the past week, we've seen some chatter about Microsoft going quiet on Recall - and even some folks mulling whether it might even be canceled, or at least subject to a major rework. Clearly, that was never going to be the case, but we've now got confirmation that it'll be back in testing soon enough. Well, to be fair, we're going to have to wait two months (maybe slightly less) until we see what Microsoft has been doing with Recall. In case you forgot - it's been a while, as mentioned - Recall is a supercharged AI-driven all-encompassing search experience powered by regularly taken screenshots of your desktop activity (or at least it was). It was announced as a key AI feature for Copilot+ PCs (as it requires a beefy NPU to run smoothly), and with those laptops being out on shelves now, this major piece of the puzzle going MIA wasn't a great look for Microsoft. Still, we'd rather the software giant works hard on getting Recall right, rather than rushes it. If any feature shouldn't be rushed, it's this one. Also bear in mind that it'll only be available to Windows 11 testers in October, and it could stay in preview for quite some time, perhaps many months, if Microsoft is going to go to lengths to get it right - which, as mentioned, seems like a sound idea. There's a lot riding on Copilot+ PCs - and some predicted massive sales figures for these AI-centric notebooks going forward - but those forecasts of big year-on-year shipment increases won't happen if Microsoft messes up with the first major AI feature for the devices.

Microsoft's controversial AI Recall feature will be available from October

Microsoft said they will be releasing their controversial Recall feature in October this year. The AI feature that takes screenshots of every task in Windows was criticised after being announced, over its potential privacy issues. Microsoft delayed the release at the last-minute, right before their CoPilot+PCs event held earlier in May. The Satya Nadella-led company said that Recall will now be "trustworthy and secure," in a blog posting the news. There is no update around what changes have been made to the feature. Microsoft to delay release of Recall AI feature on security concerns Privacy and security experts warned that the screenshots saved in the system could later be accessed by any threat actor who had hacked into the system, making it much easier for them to obtain personal details. (For top technology news of the day, subscribe to our tech newsletter Today's Cache) In June, Microsoft posted a blog assuring users that they would amp up security features for Recall, including requiring users to have biometric Windows Hello security and additional authentication to protect user data. As the company integrates AI into its systems, the Copilot Plus PC initiative has become an important part of Microsoft's AI future. These systems will be specialised to perform AI tasks and work on neural processing units, or NPU units, which help with tasks like better photo editing, transcription and translation, and Recall. At the recent Pixel 9 series launch, Google announced Pixel Screenshots where users can manually take a screenshot of an activity if they want to refer to it later. Read Comments

Microsoft's contentious AI-powered Recall system finally has an ETA

The controversial screenshot-mining system faced harsh security and privacy concerns when first announced. AI and controversy go hand in hand, and one of the more contentious developments occurred earlier this year, when Microsoft revealed its plan to introduce Recall for Copilot Plus PCs. The system would continually take screenshots while you use your PC, process that imagery with AI, and then allow you search through them to reference later. After months of waiting, we're finally learning when Microsoft intends to open up Recall to its first public testers.