Microsoft's latest prod to use Copilot AI in the Edge browser is subtle, but still annoying - and I'm getting fed up with this

• Microsoft is trying to promote its Copilot AI in the Edge browser
• When people visit ChatGPT or Perplexity they may see a 'Try Copilot' button
• This fires up Copilot in Edge's sidebar, and the idea is to poach traffic from these rival AI services

Microsoft's latest idea to promote its services is an attempt to get people who are using ChatGPT or Perplexity AI to try Copilot instead.

Windows Latest reports that this is happening for those using Microsoft Edge. When you visit either the ChatGPT or Perplexity websites in Microsoft's browser, there's a button that appears on the far-right of Edge's web address bar which urges you to 'Try Copilot' instead (with a small Copilot icon next to it).

It's relatively subtle - by Microsoft's standards - but visible enough, and if you click on it, Edge will open Copilot in its sidebar. Obviously, the hope is that you'll use Microsoft's AI rather than either ChatGPT or Perplexity, and therefore Microsoft is trying to poach traffic here.

I tried opening both these rival AI websites in my Edge browser, and just as Windows Latest promised, this button popped up in the URL bar. Oddly enough, it didn't appear the first time I went to the ChatGPT site, but it did appear on the second visit.

Analysis: Hey ChatGPT - how do I stop Copilot nagging me?

This appears to be happening with ChatGPT and Perplexity (plus Deepseek, the Chinese AI), but notably not with Google's Gemini AI - which seems odd, as Microsoft has no qualms about trying to warn Edge users off downloading Chrome, as we've seen in the past, and that's still true today.

In fact, navigate to the Chrome download site in Edge and you'll get a full pop-up, not just a tiny icon, trying to dissuade you from defecting to Google. It explains that Edge uses the same tech as Chrome - namely the Chromium engine - but with the "added trust of Microsoft", whatever that means.

So, these kinds of nudges are quite commonplace for Microsoft's browser, and indeed in the interests of fairness, Google gets up to the same kind of online cajoling in the reverse direction.

At any rate, this promotion of AI isn't anything new. We've seen this kind of thing before with Microsoft trying to hijack a Bing search for rival AI services and redirect people to the Copilot AI in Edge, after all. And given Microsoft's overall big push with AI - which is now becoming very obvious with all the latest developments in Windows 11 - it's really no surprise to see more of this type of activity.

That doesn't make it any less disappointing, though, as Microsoft seems to be getting increasingly heavy-handed with all its promotional tricks in Windows and Edge. That suggests the company has evidence that this kind of nudging works, but for me, it's just an annoyance, and one that makes me less likely to use any given product. Edge, Copilot, or other Microsoft services should stand on their own merit (and indeed the irony is that Edge very much does, seeing as it's our current pick for the best web browser).

Incidentally, I asked ChatGPT whether it was aware of Microsoft Edge's behavior while visiting its site, and as you'd expect, the AI acknowledged reports around this - though it remained implacably neutral in terms of its general tone. Interestingly, ChatGPT did suggest turning off the Copilot button (to the right-hand side of the address bar) to get rid of this particular 'Try Copilot' nudge, and would you believe that this worked for me. With the main Copilot button disabled, I didn't see Microsoft's nag in the address bar any longer (at least in my brief testing).

If you're wondering how to turn off that Copilot button, in the Edge address bar, type the following to access this part of the browser's settings:

edge://settings/appearance/copilotAndSidebar

At the bottom in the 'App specific settings' panel, click on 'Copilot' and where it says 'Show Copilot button on the toolbar', turn this off. You'll no longer have a Copilot button, and hopefully won't see any Copilot-related suggestions in Edge's address bar - or at least fewer of them.

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