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Microsoft has yet again changed tack regarding Recall, the artificial intelligence-powered feature purported to give your PC photographic memory. Rather than releasing the feature to all Copilot+ PCs this month, Microsoft will reserve its Recall preview for Windows Insiders, who will provide feedback on the tool’s ease of use and perceived security before its full rollout.
“We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security,” Windows vice president Pavan Davuluri wrote. “Recall will now shift from a preview experience broadly available for Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, to a preview available first in the Windows Insider Program (WIP) in the coming weeks.”
Credit: Microsoft
The decision to delay Recall’s wider release comes after weeks of public apprehension surrounding the feature. When Recall was first announced in May, PC users across the internet expressed skepticism—and, in some cases, outrage—at the feature’s core function, which is to snap and save snapshots of your screen every few seconds. Recall then uses optical character recognition (OCR) to translate these screenshots into plain text, which you can search anytime. The idea is to help you scour virtually anything across your display, from recipes you browsed online to work presentations you snored through last week. But for those who might not make extensive use of the feature, Recall is equivalent to Microsoft-sanctioned spyware.
It’s not particularly secure, either—at least, not the way it stands right now. A cybersecurity expert proved earlier this month that Recall’s plain text databases are surprisingly easy to hack. This (and other complaints) prompted Microsoft to announce pre-launch updates that would allegedly make Recall more secure. These updates included Windows Hello authentication and just-in-time decryption, which use biometrics to confirm user presence and maintain encryption until the exact moment decryption is needed. But, if Microsoft’s latest message is anything to go off of, this wasn’t enough.
Davuluri said Windows Insiders will be notified when Recall becomes available within the beta feedback program. Microsoft will simultaneously publish a public blog post with details about joining Windows Insiders for those interested in testing the feature early. Though Recall will eventually become available to those without Copilot+ PCs, the beta version of the feature will initially be reserved for people who have purchased one of Microsoft’s new AI-optimized laptops.