Who’d have thought they’d see another day when Microsoft played nice with Google. Beginning this past week, Microsoft began slowly introducing a Windows update that hooks into users’ Google apps (via opt-in permissions) Copilot to perform cross-app searches and tasks.
Copilot is Microsoft’s generative AI that competes against Google Gemini, OpenAI ChatGPT, and Anthropic Claude. Now that it plays nicely with several Google apps, Windows users can use AI to search through their computer’s files, email accounts, contact lists, and more.
an ai in the system
Alongside Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft OneDrive, which are obvious integrations, the Windows update also allows you to hook Copilot into Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts.
Using the new Copilot integration through Microsoft Connectors, you can ask, as Google gave in two examples, “What’s the email address for Sarah?” or “Find my school notes from last week… and Copilot will retrieve relevant information from your connected accounts.”
Because it’s opt-in, that means that by default the capability is disabled. You have to dig into Windows’ settings menu to toggle it on. It may sound like just one more tiring step, but I favor opt-in over opt-out, in which a person is automatically enrolled in something by default, because it ensures that you don’t find your files in the hands of a powerful AI without your knowledge and permission.
To turn on the new integration, go into your Copilot Windows app, click Settings, click Connectors, and then enable the programs for which you want to enable the features. You don’t have to enable it for all of them or none of them. You can pick and choose the programs.
The update (version 1.25095.161.0 and higher) started rolling out to Windows Insiders on October 9, 2025, but the rollout is happening gradually. If you’ve updated to the latest version of Windows but still don’t see the feature as an option on the Connectors page of your Windows settings screen, wait just a little while longer.
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