Microsoft Copilot gets its own app for the Mac

Microsoft's AI assistant, Copilot, has come to another platform: the Mac. In the United States and United Kingdom, Microsoft has released a dedicated app in the Mac App Store. (In fact, it's the top app featured by Apple on the App Store as of this writing)

The new app requires a Mac with an M1 processor or later and at least macOS 14 Sonoma. While it's open in the background, you can use a default shortcut (Option + Space) to quickly message it. That's just a key away from Command + Space, which launches the familiar Spotlight search.

The full app also features the Think Deeper feature (powered by OpenAI's o1 model) as well as voice conversations. You can also get news tories from Copilot daily and access your conversations from other devices. If you've used Copilot on any other platform, including Windows, it's all pretty familiar here.

The wait is over - we can finally hang out on macOS! Download Copilot for Mac and try me out today.February 27, 2025

Technically, it's not the first time Copilot has been on the Mac. It was already built into the Edge browser and in certain Office 365 apps. But now it's standalone.

The move came after Mac owners received the ability to type to Siri with Apple Intelligence, alongside ChatGPT extensions for Siri. OpenAI also has its own Mac app, as AI companies look to expand their user base to multiple platforms. Siri has yet to receive some Apple Intelligence upgrades, so there's room on the Mac for other AI agents to steal the show, at least for now.

Microsoft had not been abandoning Apple platforms, though. Copilot had already been available for the iPhone and the Mac. Today, Apple is also adding Split Screen capability to the iPad app, and both iOS and iPad users can now upload text files and PDFs to Copilot to query the assistant about the documents or summarize them. (Microsoft says this is coming to the Mac soon).

While the Mac might not be the most obvious choice for a Microsoft-owned AI (after all, it definitely doesn't qualify to be a Copilot+ PC with those current rules!), Microsoft has been pretty good about keeping its software available everywhere, not just Windows. So some diehards who love macOS but also love Office and other Microsoft offerings may finally have just what they want.

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.