Microsoft adds Copilot AI features to Windows 11's Photos app - and I actually don't hate them

(Image credit: AdriaVidal via Shutterstock)

Microsoft has added new AI-powered features to the Windows Photos app
Its new features include Enhanced Optical Character Recognition and editing tools
The update is only live in part to Windows Insider users, with the features expected to roll out in the coming weeks

Microsoft has rolled out a new update for the Windows Photos app, which adds Copilot support and an array of new features designed to make the program more user-friendly and useful overall.

As spotted by MSPoweruser, the biggest change to the Windows Photos app is the new Copilot button, which is available now for some Insider users.

New features backed by the company's AI-powered assistant include Enhanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with Web Search Integration, which includes the ability to scan text with over 160 languages recognized.

Additionally, the new update has added a "Search in Web" button, which will scan the text within the images and present options based on them, which is said to be particularly handy for finding sources of documents and screenshots.

Also powered by Copilot is the new quick-access drop-down menu which has more advanced options for editing images. Presently, these are: Edit with Photos, Erase Objects with Photos, Create with Designer, and Visual Search with Bing (if you want to use the Microsoft-backed search engine specifically).

Arguably less exciting (but still useful) are the new shortcuts available in File Explorer, which can also be used from the desktop. They offer simple one-click access to the aforementioned drop-down menu without even needing to be in the app (or looking at images).

Copilot doesn't just offer creation options but also enhancements through the Photo app's Gallery. Images are now displayed in subfolders, keeping things more organized with suggestions for content types. A new dedicated button offers AI-powered editing functionality with tips on enhancing an image in a handful of different ways.

Microsoft has also introduced some minor bug fixes as well, including small revisions to the Image Creator and Restyle Image features for Copilot, which is said to speed things up. It also means that generated images can be saved under different names without as much hassle as before.

All of these changes are being slowly drip-fed to Windows Insiders, so it's unknown exactly when everyone will benefit from the new changes, but we estimate it will be in the next few weeks.

A genuine use case for the Photos app and Copilot

Windows 11 laptop showing Copilot — (Image credit: Microsoft)

It's fair to say that the Photos app in Windows 11 has never really been something you would have wanted to have spent much time in.

For most people, it's a simple (and usually fast enough) way of browsing through images saved onto the hard disk and little else. However, backed by Copilot, there's now a suite of new functionality on offer, including image recognition and powerful editing tools that could give you more reason to open it up and play around with things.

Since its launch back in February 2023, Microsoft Copilot has become a bigger focus of the company's strategy, particularly about some of the best laptops and the best ultrabooks.

Of course, to make use of the bulk of these features, you'll need a laptop with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) to utilize AI workloads in the first place. Whether that's with Intel's Lunar Lake, AMD's Ryzen AI chips, or Qualcomm's Snapdragon X line, all of the best laptop CPUs now have NPUs built in. We recommend reading up on all the differences to see what's right for you.