Microsoft’s Recall feature, which seemed to have faded into obscurity, is making a comeback. According to a recent update to a blog post from August, the Recall feature will begin its second round of testing in October.
The company announced, “To ensure a trustworthy and secure Recall (preview) experience for our Copilot+ PC users, we’re preparing to roll out Recall to Windows Insiders starting this October. As mentioned earlier on June 13, our updated release strategy includes leveraging the expertise of the Windows Insider community before Recall is available to all Copilot+ PCs.”
The update did not specify which Insider channel will receive Recall first. Typically, Microsoft tests experimental features in the Canary and Dev channels before rolling them out to the more stable Beta and Release Preview channels.
Recall’s initial announcement in May 2024 at the Microsoft Build developer conference was met with both interest and controversy. The feature was designed to take periodic snapshots of your screen, using OCR and AI to help you locate and recall information from your recent activity.
Despite its innovative premise, Recall faced significant backlash from privacy advocates concerned about the potential for sensitive data storage and security vulnerabilities. Microsoft addressed these concerns by allowing users to disable Recall, though the storage implications remained a point of contention.
Recall was initially withdrawn from the Windows 11 24H2 preview build for further refinement. Microsoft has not yet detailed any changes to the feature or its operational specifics, but further information is expected to be shared in the upcoming blog post.
