Microsoft 365 Copilot app: Simplified, chat-centered experience

Microsoft 365 Copilot app updates introduce a streamlined, chat-centered experience with simplified navigation, a new Tasks tab, and consolidated Work IQ toggle. Rolling out from May to July 2026, these changes enhance usability across web and desktop for all Copilot users, requiring no user action to enable.

[Introduction]

We are introducing updates to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app that deliver a more streamlined, chat-centered experience. These updates simplify the chat and response layout, improve navigation, and introduce new ways for users to organize work—helping them stay focused, maintain context, and move work forward efficiently.

[When this will happen]

• Frontier: Late May 2026 
• Generally available behind opt-in toggle: June 2026 
• Generally available, default on: July 2026 

[How this affects your organization]

Who is affected

• All users accessing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on the web or desktop
• Applies to Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) and Copilot Chat (Basic) tenants

What will happen

Throughout the Copilot app, experiences have a new, cleaner look with simplified headers and text input components. In addition, users will see the following updates:

Streamlined navigation

• The navigation pane has a new pinned section where users can pin frequently used agents, apps, and Copilot experiences (like Notebooks, Microsoft 365 apps, chat conversations, etc.) directly in the navigation pane for easy access. 
• The app launcher moves to the waffle menu in the top right of the expanded navigation pane where users can access apps and experiences like Create, Notebooks, Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and custom apps. Some users in an early test group may have already seen this change roll out a few weeks prior. 
• The agents section in the navigation pane is simplified to a flyout menu, where users can hover over to see their pinned and recently used agents, as well as access agent store and agent builder. Users can also select the agents label to open the agent store directly.
• The new Tasks tab in the navigation pane opens a consolidated view of the user’s long-running Copilot activity, including scheduled chats and agent activity, so they can easily track autonomous Copilot tasks and take action when needed. 
• Users can collapse the Copilot app navigation pane by selecting the icon in the top left corner of the pane ("collapse navigation" text string appears when the user hovers over the icon).

Chat update

• Work and web grounding controls are consolidated into a single “Work IQ” toggle in the upper-left corner of the chat screen. Work IQ is enabled by default and combines enterprise data with web grounding to provide more complete responses. Users can turn off Work IQ to disable enterprise data tools and switch to web-only grounding. When Work IQ is turned off, prompt suggestions and the CIQ menu are limited to web-based suggestions, and the Sources menu is disabled. Agents continue to function as usual.
• The Copilot Chat layout has been simplified with a rich prompting canvas that preserves formatting when pasting content, refreshed prompt suggestions and header text, and a streamlined menu for adding content, agents, and images.
• Copilot Chat response's structure is clearer for more scannable information, citations, and more relevant suggested actions. 

Agent update

• When a user opens an agent from the agent flyout menu in the navigation pane or from the Agent Store and lands on the agent home screen, they will see details about where the agent came from, including a profile card of the agent maker and tooltips alongside the organization name. The ghost text in the agent chat input includes the agent’s name to clearly show that the interaction is with the agent. 

These updates will roll out to all Microsoft 365 users with access to the Copilot app. 

Default behavior

• When these updates roll out to Frontier users, the new experience will be their default experience. This allows Microsoft to generate sufficient feedback to inform decisions impacting full GA deployment. 
• When these updates roll out to worldwide users in June, the new experience will be available via an opt-in toggle. The experience will be disabled by default. 
• In July, these features will become available by default for all users. The opt-in toggle will be removed at this time. 

Screenshot 1 - Microsoft 365 Copilot app home screen view:

 

Screenshot 2 - Microsoft 365 Copilot app home screen with expanded navigation view:

 

Screenshot 3 - Chat response in Copilot app view:

 

[What you can do to prepare]

No action is required to enable this change.

To prepare for these changes, we recommend that administrators:

• Inform users about the updated Copilot app experience 
• Share updated Microsoft support documentation (https://support.microsoft.com/Microsoft-365-Copilot/what-is-the-microsoft-365-copilot-app) with users when it has been updated with the new experience in June (aligned to when the updates roll out to general audiences). 
• If applicable, update internal guidance and training materials to reflect changes to navigation, chat experience, and where users access key capabilities. 
• If participating in preview programs (e.g., Frontier), validate the experience in your environment and provide feedback to help shape final GA 

Learn more:

• Announcement - Microsoft 365 Blog

[Compliance considerations]

Consideration	Impact	Notes
Changes how data is processed/accessed	Yes	Expanded use of Copilot across chats, agents, and workspaces
Introduces/modifies AI/ML interactions	Yes	Increased agent orchestration and chat-based workflows
New generative AI interactions	Yes	Deeper chat-centric creation and agent-driven actions