Forum Discussion
Copilot Changes in New Outlook
Copilot in the New Mail has recently changed to this (I have a $30/mo subscription to Copilot through a business account):
If I click on the little circle thing or press Alt+i it displays this with the text below already filled in:
I never start prompts to Copilot with "Help me write an email to" so I always have to manually delete this text to enter the actual prompt. Once I do that, Copilot opens the full-blown sidebar with a big discussion. And to top it off, Copilot in the sidebar does not follow the Copilot drafting instructions I saved in the Copilot settings in Outlook.
This is a regression compared to how Copilot used to work, which is shown in the screen below:
Granted I only ever used "Auto rewrite" in that drop down menu so you could shorten it some. However, this version is better because: (1) it does not open a large sidebar and expect me to enter into a big discussion, (2) there is no pre-existing text in the prompt box so I can press a hotkey and quickly dictate my prompt using the built-in dictation in Windows, (3) it will follow the drafting instructions I saved in the Copilot settings in Outlook, and (4) it shows the option to Auto rewrite the text.
I want Copilot to work the way it used to work and, especially, for Alt+i to open up the latter menu in all situations. I understand that some people might want to engage in a big discussion in the sidebar with Copilot, but don't make that the default.
7 Replies
I completely agree with this feedback. Please bring back the old behavior ASAP
Cassidian​ A workaround for hundreds of meaningless Chat History entries in New Outlook, especially for Summarize this Email.
Open the Copilot Chat pane in New Outlook and click on Temporary Chat.
Then you can click the + sign to add the response to the email body.
Video: https://youtu.be/aBmV7D-BZ2k
If you find this information helpful, please mark it as the best response to help others.
#traccreations4e-r26 8/13/2026I am a daily Microsoft 365 Copilot user and I believe the recent change that stores simple Outlook rewrite actions as Copilot chats is a major product design mistake.
Previously, rewriting an email felt like using a productivity tool:
- Make it shorter
- Make it more professional
- Translate to English
- Improve wording
These are small, transactional actions.
Today, many of these actions are being stored as full Copilot chat conversations. As a result, my Copilot history is becoming flooded with hundreds of meaningless entries that I will never revisit.
This creates several problems:
1. Chat history becomes useless
I use Copilot for real work:
- research
- project planning
- technical analysis
- brainstorming
- business decisionsThose are conversations I may actually want to find again.
I do not want those buried between hundreds of:
- "make this friendlier"
- "translate to xyz"
- "shorten this email"2. Rewriting and chatting are different use cases
Rewriting text is not the same thing as having a conversation with Copilot.
These should be treated as different workloads.
3. There is no meaningful user control
As far as I can tell, there is currently no setting that allows:
- Keep Copilot chat history
- Keep Copilot memory
- Keep Copilot functionality
- BUT do not save email rewrite actions as chatsThis should exist.
4. The current experience actively reduces usability
Every small email edit generates more clutter.
The more I use Copilot, the harder it becomes to find valuable conversations.
That is the opposite of what a productivity tool should achieve.
What Microsoft should do
At minimum:
- Add a setting: "Do not save rewrite actions to chat history"
- Add a setting: "Handle rewrite actions as temporary sessions"
- Keep email rewriting separate from long-form Copilot conversationsWhat I am really considering:
I am responsible for Microsoft 365 services in my organization and I am seriously questioning whether this direction makes sense for our users.
A productivity tool should reduce noise, not generate it.
If Microsoft continues merging every small action into persistent chat history without giving users control, I will honestly start evaluating alternative AI solutions.
Please give users back the ability to separate quick rewrite actions from actual Copilot conversations.
If Microsoft believes this is the intended user experience, I strongly disagree. However, if there is already an administrative setting that separates email rewrite actions from normal Copilot conversations, please point us to it. I would be very happy to learn that I overlooked such an option.
This new update or feature is really frustrating and time consuming. The before small pop up window in rewriting the email was very fast in responses and can review and paste it. But with this new feature of opening all new sidebar window just to draft an email is ridiculous and this feature take 2 business days to just to check the grammar and rewrite with better tone.
Has anyone tried any other options to revert back to the previous way to using copilot to rewrite the email/ If so could you please share the steps on how to do it?I can't repro this. When I remove "Help me write..." text, the floating prompt remains and doesn't open the Copilot sidebar for me.
Also, it only shows that text and not the menu when the email is still empty. Which makes sense, as it can't rewrite an empty email ;-)
If I write something first, and then open Copilot, I get the full menu as per your second screenshot and nothing has been typed into the prompt yet.
FWIW: When I open Copilot with Alt+i in an empty email, I immediately press CTRL+A as well to select the "Help me write..." text. When I then start writing my prompt, it will overwrite the pre-fill prompt text.
Here's a video showing the Copilot sidebar pop out and take over more than 50% of the window for a new email just to tell me stupid, irrelevant things like: "I've drafted the email ..." "If you'd like I can do ..." I don't want a massive amount of my window area taken up with dumb messages like this.
Also, it only shows that text and not the menu when the email is still empty. Which makes sense, as it can't rewrite an empty email ;-)
The problem is that if I enter a prompt into the box shown below, Copilot will not follow the drafting instructions I have in the Outlook settings. Prompts I enter in the box below bypass the drafting instructions in the Outlook settings, which makes it relatively useless for me.
On the other hand, prompts I enter into the old box (shown below) do follow the drafting instructions I have in the Outlook settings. And, it follows the prompts even when the email is empty ;-)
FWIW: When I open Copilot with Alt+i in an empty email, I immediately press CTRL+A as well to select the "Help me write..." text. When I then start writing my prompt, it will overwrite the pre-fill prompt text.
Yes, it's possible to remove the text in the prompt box in various ways, but it shouldn't be there in the first place.
Hi did you ever figure this out. I am experiencing the same problems as you. The sidebar always opening and not following prompting instructions. The old way was far better for consistency and speed.
