Microsoft Edge is the hot spot of emerging Copilot elements. You’ve got chat, vision, search, already scattered around in Edge, and now it’s testing an auto-popup nudge for the “Rewrite with Copilot” feature is in work. As the name suggests, it’ll suggest to you to help you rewrite your draft whenever you highlight the text.
Currently, when you select the text in a text box (email, X, writing tool, etc) and right-click on it, the Rewrite with Copilot option appears along with other options in the context menu. However, Microsoft doesn’t seem satisfied with this approach.
Browser researcher Leo spotted a new hidden development in Edge Canary that adds another annoying element. Once implemented, Edge will automatically show a floating pop-up suggesting rewriting whenever you select a text chunk.
Instead of giving you control, Edge will shove the pop-up in your face every time you select something to copy or modify.Unless Microsoft adds a toggle to disable this, it will cause outrage if it ships to the stable edition. Edge’s Copilot rewrite tool isn’t exactly new and has been around for over a year now.
I haven’t used that tool since it shipped, and maybe Microsoft wants to suggest it to more people. Yet, there should be an option to manage that suggestion or turn it off if the user ignores it multiple times.
While consumer edition Edge users have had the Rewrite with Copilot option for a long time, Microsoft aims to target business users as well. Business users might be more inclined to use this tool, as long professional messages may require a few tweaks to get the wording right.
Rewrite with Copilot will appear in Edge for Business
As first spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft published a 365 Roadmap ID numbered 420335 sometime back that hints at including the feature in business. It highlights how the feature will work in Edge for Business, and by the looks of it, nothing’s different.
In the consumer edition of Edge, the Rewrite with Copilot option launches a floating window that automatically fixes the text to some extent. In the example below, it shortens the sentence and adds a full form for “asap” to make it look formal. However, I couldn’t resize or move the floating window, which is a bummer.
To replace the original text with the new suggestion, I must click “Replace.” I once again selected the ‘Rewrite with Copilot‘ option for the replaced text, and the AI rephrased the sentence slightly. If you aren’t satisfied with the response, you can click on the Try again button to generate a different sentence.
Rewrite isn’t limited to just one-click output. There’s an adjust button that presents three more options.
- Tone: Set the sentence tone to professional, funny, casual, enthusiastic, or informational.
- Format: Allows you to generate paragraphs, bullet points, blogs, or email format from the source prompt.
- Length: Adjusts the length(word count) of the generated output to one of the small, medium, or long presets.
While you might not use it in a formal setting, the tool’s output was quite similar to what you would do with Grammarly or other writing tools.
Another point to look at is that Rewrite’s range is limited to the source text. My message had 37 words in it, and I attempted to expand it to 50 or more due to the preset bullet points. Even if I pick the paragraphs or the blog post preset with the long length option, the output won’t be more than a few extra words.
Microsoft plans to integrate Rewrite with Copilot into Edge for Business. In our tests, Windows Latest found that this integration has already begun for Businesses last month, but it’ll not show up immediately. The rollout will take time to appear for everyone, and admins can control its availability with the InlineComposeEnabled policy.
