It’s official: Microsoft’s privacy-panned Recall AI feature is indefinitely delayed

Microsoft has had quite the few weeks of ups and downs. Following a strong launch event for its AI-centric Copilot Plus PC devices, the hallmark AI feature was deemed by an expert as a ‘security disaster.’ It took a while, but the company responded—not with an apology, but at least with a commitment to make some key changes. For example, while Recall was once opt-out, now it will be opt-in for its public launch.

About that public launch though: it’s no longer happening, at least not any time soon. While Recall was originally planned to ship with the first Copilot Plus PCs, those devices will now ship next week without the controversial feature.

Here is the revised Microsoft blog post detailing the news:

Today, we are communicating an additional update on the Recall (preview) feature for Copilot+ PCs. Recall will now shift from a preview experience broadly available for Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, to a preview available first in the Windows Insider Program (WIP) in the coming weeks. Following receiving feedback on Recall from our Windows Insider Community, as we typically do, we plan to make Recall (preview) available for all Copilot+ PCs coming soon.

We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security. This decision is rooted in our commitment to providing a trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers and to seek additional feedback prior to making the feature available to all Copilot+ PC users.

So anyone looking forward to using Recall can sign up as part of the Windows Insider community. But for everyone else, there’s no release date other than the highly ambiguous “soon.” And considering the saga that Recall has gone through up until this point, we should probably interpret “soon” as broadly and generously as possible.