Category: News

Taking Microsoft’s Copilot app for Android for a test drive

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Microsoft unveiled the Copilot app for Android and iOS this week officially. While it released the app earlier, it is now officially available according to Microsoft.

How good is the app for Android and how does it compare to the web-based version? To find out, I decided to install Microsoft Copilot for Android on a Samsung handheld.

Microsoft describes its Copilot app in the following way:

Improve Your Productivity with Copilot–Your AI-Powered Chat Assistant
Copilot is a pioneering chat assistant from Microsoft powered by the latest OpenAI models, GPT-4 and DALL·E 3. These advanced AI technologies provide fast, complex, and precise responses, as well as the ability to create breathtaking visuals from simple text descriptions.
Chat and create all in one place—for free!

The app contains ads according to the description on Google Play. Ads may be displayed in responses of the AI, but not elsewhere, at least for now.

First thing you may notice is that you do not need to sign-in to use the app. This is similar to Copilot, formerly known as Bing Chat, which also works without account. Still, if you sign-in to a Microsoft account you get “longer conversations” and may ask more questions. The latter refers to the number of turns between you and the AI. Anonymous users get 5 turns, which is sufficient for many interactions.

The Copilot interface and capabilities

Microsoft Copilot App Android interface

The application’s interface feels a bit overladen on launch. There is a slider to use GPT-4, some examples to get you started, a microphone icon, the refresh button to start anew, a photo and a keyboard icon. You also get a sign-in link and may vote or copy content the AI produces.

You may interact with the AI by typing, speaking or through images that you capture with the device’s camera or search on the Web. The functionality is similar to the one provided by the Copilot website.

Some features may work better on the web, others on mobile. Typing may work better with a dedicated keyboard, but voice and image inputs may work better on mobile in many cases.

Note that you still need to type or speak when you capture images.

A tap on the “sign-in” icon displays the Settings. This is not ideal, as it may mean that users who do not want to sign in from opening the preferences.

The settings list a few interesting options. You may change country/region, display language and speech language, as well as the theme there.

The privacy options display just a few options, including the ability to block ads. Note that this won’t disable the ads that Microsoft’s Copilot AI may display in its responses. It is unclear which ads the ad-blocker is blocking. There is no explanation on the page regarding that.

Using the Copilot App

It makes almost no difference if you use the Copilot app or Copilot on the web. Typing may be slower for many users, but that is to be expected. It would be interesting to know how many interact with the AI through text and how many use their voice.

Copilot requires an active Internet connection and it may take some time before you get results, especially if you enable GPT-4.

There is little that the current version of Copilot can do that other Internet services can’t. You can use it to translate images that you capture, get recommendations based on your location, or information about art in a museum. One of the advantages of the AI is that you get all of this from a single app.

One of the downsides is that it may hallucinate and produce information that are inaccurate or false. This is also true for other web services and AIs and it may be necessary to verify the output before making use of it.

It works reasonably well most of the time and may be useful because of that. Much depends on how it is used though.

Closing Words

Whether it is better than regular non-AI apps and services is for the individual user to decide. You could ask the AI to create a sightseeing trip that lasts 4 hours and should include all major sights in the vicinity. It may produce a good list faster than you’d be able to create using Google Maps or other services. Then again, it may also lead you to sights that do not exist, or do not exist anymore.

All in all, AI is a promising technology, but it is in its infancy. While technology has leaped forward significantly in the past year, it still has a long way to go before it reaches Star Trek Data or Star Wars 3C-PO levels.

Now you: do you use AI services or tools?

Don’t worry too much about Google deleting inactive accounts

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google announced an update to storage policies in November 2020. Back then, the company informed users that it changed which files count against a user’s storage quota.

The change affects high quality photos uploaded to Google Photos and also new Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drawings, Forms or Jamboard files. One of these services, Jamboard, a whiteboarding app, has been shut down in the meantime.

A help page on Google’s support website lists data that counts against a user’s quota. Apart from what is listed above, this also includes the following:

  • Meet call recordings.
  • Files in Google Drive.
  • Gmail messages and attachments.
  • Original quality photos and videos backed up to Google Photos.

Users may experience issues when they are over quota. Broken down, it limits the ability to save new files to the cloud storage in many Google products.

Inactive Google accounts

In the same update, Google announced new policies for inactive accounts and accounts that are over the limit.

Accounts inactive for 24 months may have content deleted in the aforementioned services. Google explicitly refers to “product(s) in which you’re inactive”.

The wording is confusing, as users may interpret it as having to use all of these services at least once in a 2 year period to avoid having their data deleted.

This appears to not be the case. Google suggests to “periodically visit Gmail, Drive or Photos on the web or mobile, while signed in and connected to the internet” to avoid the banhammer.

Google reassures users that it will notify users multiple times by email and notifications prior to deleting content or deleting the entire account.

Accounts that exceed their storage quota for a 2 year period also risk deletion, according to Google.

Most accounts are safe

Some news outlet painted the new policy in dramatic terms. While it is true that Google may delete inactive accounts, it is relatively easy to do something about it.

One could argue that users who have not used their account for 2 years may not hold it in high value and that most may not mind the deletion.

In any event, here is what I recommend:

  • If you store valuable files or emails in your Google account, create a backup.-You can use Google’s Takeout service to export the data. Another option is to save files locally or use a local email client, e.g., Thunderbird, to synchronize the emails.
  • To make sure the account is not deleted, sign-in to one of the supported Google products at least once every 24 months.

Closing Words

Google is not the only company that threatens to delete inactive accounts. Microsoft, for example, has similar policies in place. Microsoft users who have not signed-in to their account in a 2 year period may have their accounts deleted as well.