Microsoft is testing a new hands-free voice activation feature for Copilot on Windows 11, allowing users to launch the AI assistant simply by saying, “Hey Copilot.”
The feature is currently rolling out to Windows Insiders with Copilot app version 1.25051.10.0 or higher.
Once enabled, users will see a floating microphone icon above the taskbar, along with a chime indicating that the system is listening. This brings Copilot in line with voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant — and marks a major usability step since Copilot replaced Microsoft’s retired Cortana assistant.
According to Microsoft’s blog post, the wake word detection is powered by an on-device model with a 10-second audio buffer. Importantly, it doesn’t record or store any audio clips and can function offline for wake word detection. However, full functionality still requires an internet connection for cloud-based processing.
The feature is gradually rolling out worldwide to Insiders with English as their display language and must be manually enabled to function.
