Windows 11 widgets are getting an AI glow-up

Microsoft is constantly testing new ways to enrich the Windows 11 experience. The latest test is a brand-new widgets panel for Windows 11 that replaces the MSN feed with a feature called Copilot Discover.

Of course, as you can tell by the name, the new layout uses AI to curate stories for you. These curated stories are based on your likes and Copilot usage, and are shown in a clean layout similar to (but not identical with) the old MSN feed. 

It's worth noting that the new Copilot Discover feed also appears to be significantly faster and smoother, including with its animations and scrolling. And, what's even better is that it looks less cluttered: stores appear in large boxes with big text, so they are more legible. 


If you hover over a story in that feet, you have different options for actions. Those include voting the story up or down based on whether you find it interesting, you can also bookmark it to check it out later, and you can also follow or block particular media outlets. Stories that have videos in them will automatically begin playing if you hover over them. 


Meanwhile, Microsoft is also testing the ability to let you read the stories you click on directly in the widget panel itself. Right now, if you click on a story, your default browser will open, which could be somewhat of a disjointed experience. It would be much better to read the story directly in the widgets panel, and also, much faster. 

So far, though, very few third-party developers have adopted the ability to build widgets in this area of Windows 11. Until now, this area seemed almost abandoned, in a sense, so hopefully this new update would make it feel more relevant. 

The new layout also moves your widgets out of the main feed and into a separate widgets tab. This tab can be accessed from the top left of the panel. So now, the only widget remaining on the main page is the weather widget, and it can not be moved or resized anymore. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also working on letting you customize and pin the same widgets to the lock screen on Windows 11. This will be great and give you more options, and also, hopefully, encourage developers to create more widgets for Windows. 

The widgets panel can no longer be made into full-screen mode. Now, it can only be seen as a tall, narrow slide-out on the left side of your display, somewhat reminiscent of how it's on MacBooks (but on the Mac, it's on the right). 

Keep in mind that this feature is still in early testing, so it's likely that more capabilities and refinements will be added to it before it becomes a part of a future Windows 11 stable update. 

Back in May, Windows announced this new Copilot Discover feed. Now, it's testing it with a small number of users. If it receives positive feedback, the feature should get a broader rollout soon. 

I think it's very nice that Microsoft is paying attention to that part of the Windows 11 experience. It may be a minor change, but the new panel looks cleaner and more legible, and hopefully with more relevant things in there for us to read.

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