Microsoft’s Copilot wants to replace Google Assistant
One of the best features of Android is its customizability. Don’t like the default email app? Change it to a third-party option. Don’t like using Chrome as your default browser? Feel free to switch to Firefox. Now it looks like if you prefer using Microsoft’s Copilot instead of Google Assistant, you can now make it the default on your Android phone.
In the latest beta update to Copilot on Android, Microsoft is now giving users the option of using its AI chatbot as the default instead of Google Assistant. Users can activate Copilot by swiping diagonally from the corner of your screen. Unfortunately, the beta seems to be half-finished. Instead of a pop-up view like Google Assistant, swiping diagonally brings users to the main view.
We imagine that the public release will fix that (hopefully), but for now it seems half-baked. For now, if you prefer a more seamless experience, Google Assistant/Gemini is still your best bet. Microsoft isn’t alone in hoping that you will replace Google Assistant with their own AI. A recent teardown of the ChatGPT Android app by OpenAI revealed that the company is also looking into allowing users to set ChatGPT as the default digital assistant on Android phones.
Right now the race is on between Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI to see whose AI will become the new standard. Apple is also reportedly building its own generative AI. Knowing Apple, however, it will probably remain exclusive to its own iOS and macOS platforms. We don’t know when this Copilot update will be released, so we’ll just have to wait and see.