Editor's Review
More than a search box:
This stopped being a plain search front end some time ago. Search is still present, but the app leads with Copilot, Microsoft's chat assistant, which answers questions in prose with citations, drafts text and generates images from a description. For a lot of queries that is a quicker route to an answer than a page of blue links.
Search tools:
Visual search points the camera at an object, a landmark or a block of text and searches from the image, with translation and maths solving built on the same capture. Voice input works hands-free, news and sport sit in a browsable feed, and a built-in browser opens results without leaving the app. Microsoft Rewards points accumulate on searches for anyone signed up to that scheme.
The trade-offs:
Result quality is the honest sticking point: much of the gap on general queries has closed, but obscure and non-English searches still trail the leader, and Copilot occasionally states wrong things with complete confidence. The app is also an account funnel, since signing in unlocks chat history, rewards and sync, and the prompts to do so are persistent. Data collection is what you would expect from a search product attached to an advertising business, which makes the privacy settings worth a visit before regular use.
Who it suits:
A 4.55 average across 100M+ installs is strong. The natural audience is anyone who wants an assistant and a search engine in the same place, and especially anyone already living inside a Microsoft account.
Features
Web search with a built-in browser for opening results
Copilot chat answers that cite their sources
Image generation from a written description
Camera-based visual search for objects, landmarks and text
Translation and maths problem solving from a photo
Voice search and dictation
News, sport and weather feed with Microsoft Rewards tracking
Pros
Copilot handles open-ended questions better than keyword search does
Camera search and translation are genuinely useful away from a desk
Rewards points accrue on searches you were making anyway
No subscription needed for the assistant or any of the core tools
Cons
General result quality still trails the market leader on niche queries
Constant prompting to sign in with a Microsoft account
Chat answers can be confidently wrong, so anything important needs verifying
Questions people ask
Is a Microsoft account required?
Not for basic searching. Chat history, Rewards points, saved items and cross-device sync all need a sign-in, and the app asks about it often.
Is the Copilot here the same as the standalone Copilot app?
They share the same underlying assistant, but the standalone app is built around the conversation, while this one wraps it in a search product with a feed, a browser and camera tools.
