Microsoft to Merge Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot Into Single App, Retiring Group Chats, Podcasts, and Deep Research

Microsoft is merging its two Copilot apps into a single unified experience, retiring three features in the process. The change, reported by ZDNET, begins rolling out in mid-September 2026.

Microsoft currently maintains two separate Copilot apps across Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and the web: the consumer-focused Copilot app and the Microsoft 365 Copilot app built for organizations and professional accounts. According to Microsoft, the split has created confusion for users who move between personal and work contexts. The unified app will let users sign in with a personal, work, or school account and switch between them using an account switcher.

What changes

Microsoft 365 subscribers will keep higher usage limits than free users and will retain direct access to Word, Excel, Outlook, and other Microsoft 365 apps and files from within Copilot. Both free and paid users will have access to standard Copilot features: text and voice chat, image generation, file uploads, and general Q&A.

The migration path depends on current usage:

• Personal-account users of the regular Copilot app on desktop or web will be moved to an updated version, with chat history and most content carried over.
• Copilot mobile app users will need to download an updated version.
• Personal-account users of the Microsoft 365 Copilot app will see visual and navigation changes but gain no-cost access to Copilot Chat.
• Work or school account users of Microsoft 365 Copilot will see icon and branding changes, with the core experience largely unchanged.

Microsoft says work and personal environments will remain logically separated within the unified app, with no data flowing between the two, and that it will communicate directly with customers ahead of the mid-September rollout.

Three features retired

Microsoft is discontinuing three capabilities as part of the consolidation, effective August 18, 2026:

• Group chats — messages, conversations, and images created in group chats become inaccessible after August 18. Users must manually copy content elsewhere beforehand.
• Podcasts — the podcast creation feature is removed; previously generated podcasts become inaccessible unless downloaded from the library before the cutoff.
• Deep Research — the Deep Research mode is discontinued for creating new reports, though existing reports remain accessible. Only Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers retain access to in-depth research generation, via the separate Researcher tool.

No pricing changes were disclosed alongside this update.

What this means

This is a consolidation move, not a new model or capability. Microsoft is trading feature breadth for simplicity, cutting group chats, podcast generation, and self-serve Deep Research to unify its app strategy — while preserving the most research-intensive feature (Researcher) as a paid-tier differentiator for Microsoft 365 Premium subscribers. That's a signal of where Microsoft sees monetizable value: advanced research tooling stays behind a subscription wall, while conversational and generative basics become the shared baseline across free and paid tiers. Users who relied on group chats or podcast generation lose that functionality outright, with a hard deadline of August 18, 2026, to retain any content — a relatively short window that will catch inattentive users off guard.