Edge’s Copilot branding could get a visual update in a future release

Microsoft appears to be testing a refreshed Copilot icon for its Edge browser. The change was spotted by Leopeva64, who found a new flag in Edge Canary that points to an icon refresh across the browser.

The flag is called ‘Edge Copilot Icon Refresh.’ Its description says the experiment will “swap in the refreshed icon across Edge settings and UI surfaces.” It is listed for Mac, Windows, and Linux, although access is currently limited to Microsoft-internal machines and users.

That means even people running Edge Canary may not be able to try it. I can also confirm the flag was present in Edge Canary v152.0.4182.0 in my testing, but does nothing when enabled.

There is also no clear indication of what the new Copilot icon looks like or how much it differs from the current one. The screenshot shared by Leopeva64 only shows the flag name, its description, and the enabled setting. Microsoft has not explained the reason for the change either.

It’s unclear if this is a sign that Microsoft is working on a completely new Copilot icon everywhere, or if this is something that will be exclusive to Edge. I’d lean more towards the former being the case, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The bigger question is whether Edge needs more Copilot branding in the first place. Microsoft has already faced criticism for pushing Edge and its AI features through pop-ups, notifications, and other prompts. As we covered in earlier this month, some of the company’s arguments for choosing Edge over Chrome have not been particularly convincing.

That does not mean Edge has nothing useful to offer. Microsoft recently highlighted several improvements for web developers and progressive web apps, including better CSS layout tools, improved keyboard navigation, and smoother PWA migrations.

For now, the Copilot icon refresh is only an early experiment which happened to be spotted early. Microsoft could make it available to more Canary users, change the design, or drop the plan altogether.

We’ll keep an eye peeled for more updates on this one.

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