You can now try Microsoft’s Recall AI feature on a Copilot Plus PC

Microsoft is releasing the first preview of its Recall AI feature for Copilot Plus PCs today. After a series of delays, Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel can now install a new build of Windows 11 that includes Recall and Click to Do — a feature that’s very similar to Google’s Circle to Search. Recall takes screenshots of almost everything you do on a Copilot Plus PC to make it searchable and easy to recall a memory or retrace your steps. If you enable snapshots to be recorded by Recall, then you can use the Recall app to search for what you were working on previously with natural language queries. There is also a scrollable timeline so you can skip back to a specific date and find the apps or websites you were using. Recall’s search results use AI to match text and visual elements from the snapshots. Recall is an entirely optional experience so you have to opt in and enable it. If you decide to try it out using the Dev Channel, the models for Recall and Click to Do will start downloading in the background once you’ve installed the latest build. The preview is only available on Qualcomm-powered Copilot Plus PCs at first, with support for Intel- and AMD-powered Copilot Plus PCs coming soon. You can control what snapshots are saved and easily delete them. Microsoft also provides a way to exclude apps and websites from Recall, and the feature should also automatically detect sensitive information like credit card details, passwords, and personal ID numbers and not save those snapshots. Microsoft won’t have access to any Recall snapshots, and they’re not sent to the cloud or used to train Microsoft’s AI models. “We do not send your snapshots off your PC to Microsoft or third parties, and don’t use them for training purposes,” says Microsoft’s Windows Insider team. “Microsoft can’t access the keys to view your encrypted data, so we can’t restore your snapshots if you remove Windows Hello or restore your snapshots if you need to reset your PC or move to a new PC.” Recall requires you to use Windows Hello to confirm your presence and to access the feature, and it also requires BitLocker and Secure Boot — both of which should be enabled already on a Copilot Plus PC. Click to Do is also part of Recall in this new test build of Windows 11. Click to Do is designed to recognize text and images in Recall snapshots so you can use AI-powered actions on them like copying text or saving images out of old snapshots. Click to Do will eventually also work outside of Recall by hitting the Windows key on a keyboard and left-clicking on a mouse to see an interactive overlay appear on your screen. This interface will let you select images or text to perform clickable actions. In the future, you’ll also be able to use Click to Do on things like a YouTube video to perform a visual search on an item that appears in the video using Bing. Recall will be a big test of Microsoft’s AI ambitions in Windows. The controversial feature was originally supposed to debut alongside Copilot Plus PCs in June, but Microsoft was forced to hold back Recall after security concerns were raised. Microsoft then delayed Recall multiple times, choosing to overhaul its security, making it an opt-in experience, and allowing Copilot Plus PC owners to fully uninstall it. Security researchers will now be taking a closer look at Recall in its preview state ahead of a broader release to Copilot Plus PC owners.