Is Copilot in a death spiral?

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Is Copilot in a death spiral?

BenevolentDeity 31

It seems to me that Copilot becomes less useful as time rolls on. Back when it was first introduced I was pretty impressed by what it could do, but now I've found that its lack of up-to-date information, political correctness restrictions, and flakey desktop apps are often wasting more of my time than it is saving me.

One thing I use Copilot for is getting help writing and debugging C# programs. Although its programming abilities are still really amazing, its most recent "improvements" regarding giving it sections of code to debug or improve has driven me to Gemini. For example, I used to be able to upload attachments containing pieces of a program that were too large to upload all at once, and it would assemble them and provide its comments. Recently, however, it has been refusing to work on code that is too big to attach all at once. It tells me this recent limitation was introduced to reduce the likelihood of copyright violations. Of course I could attempt to embed the code in the text of my request, but the amount of code allowed in that case is even smaller than that allowed in attachment files.

Another thing I use Copilot for is getting information on configuring various Android and Windows applications I am not familiar with, and this is is even more frustrating than the programming issues. I have yet to find an application for which Copilot can provide a correct sequence of menu taps/clicks to get the entire job done. Its excuse is always that there are many versions of the apps and what is telling me is the way things used to be. This happens even when I explicitly tell it which version I am using. After wasting several hours of my time with its seemingly randomly generated guesses of the correct procedure, it often finally tells me that the feature I am asking about doesn't even exist on that app. Even that conclusion is often a lie too, since I sometimes do stumble onto the correct procedure myself just by dumb luck. It is also annoying that it appears to start with the oldest possible information it has access to rather than current information. It recently (March, 2026) told me that Android 6 was the newest version of Android that been released and that Gemini (and my S24FE phone itself) was wrong about it being v16. Copilot finally admitted that it was using 2024 training data because its developers didn't deem it important to update it.

I've also noticed that its image-production capability has become more and more useless, or maybe it always has been, and I'm not referring to the quality of the images. I've asked it to draw some images for some songs I've written, and it refuses to draw anything where a couple is holding hands, kissing, walking together with their arms around each other's waists, or showing any other kind of innocent affection.

Regarding the various versions of the Copilot desktop apps themselves, each new version seems to exchange old bugs and limitations for new ones, and I invariably end up going back to the Web interface.

I'm sure none of the stuff I've described is news to anyone who uses Copilot a lot, but it seems to me that it is in a continual dumb-down death spiral of some kind, and I'm not sure why. For this reason I switched entirely to the free version of Gemini, which is far from perfect. However, it overcomes many of the issues I've encountered and seem to be increasing with each revision of Copilot :-(

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Answer 1

Copilot behavior is changing, but it is not possible to confirm a “death spiral” from the available information. The context only supports a few concrete points that relate to this experience:

Feature and integration changes are ongoing
Copilot integrations have been added, removed, and reworked across products:
- Copilot and Compose were removed from SwiftKey in favor of the standalone Copilot mobile app, with a promise of an improved Compose-like experience later.
- Some Copilot integrations in Loop were removed to align with Microsoft 365 Copilot Pages, with a reduced but still-available Copilot chat in Loop and a plan to bring capabilities back in a more consistent way.
- Copilot on Windows is now a standalone app that can be installed/uninstalled like other apps, and IT admins can manage it via PowerShell.
These examples show that Copilot’s product surface is being actively restructured, which can feel like regressions when a previously useful integration is removed or changed.
Prompt and content-size limits do exist and can change
The context shows that:
- Copilot has character limits for prompts that can differ by mode (e.g., 2,000 vs. 4,000 characters, with plans to increase them further in some experiences).
- Copilot’s effectiveness on long documents is constrained by input-size limits and by the model’s tendency to prioritize the beginning and end of long content. Guidance is to break large documents into smaller parts or summarize in chunks.
This aligns with the experience of hitting new or stricter limits when providing large codebases or multiple attachments. The context does not confirm copyright as the reason, but it does confirm that there are practical size constraints and that they affect how well Copilot can work with large inputs.
Copilot’s knowledge and updates
The context confirms that Copilot’s behavior and capabilities are tied to specific product updates and that Microsoft is “continually adding new features and improvements.” It does not provide detailed version-by-version knowledge cutoffs or confirm specific statements about Android versions or training dates. It does, however, emphasize that:
- Content generated by Copilot may contain inaccuracies and should be reviewed and verified.
- Copilot can surface outdated or incorrect information because it is based on models that may not reflect the very latest changes.
Safety and content restrictions
The context does not enumerate specific rules about affectionate imagery, but it does state that Microsoft is committed to responsible AI and that Copilot content may be filtered or constrained to avoid sensitive or inappropriate material. That can manifest as refusals for certain image prompts even when they seem benign to the user.
Desktop apps vs. web experience
The context confirms that Copilot is available as:
- A Windows app (installable/uninstallable, managed by IT if needed).
- A macOS app.
- Integrated experiences in Microsoft 365 apps and Loop.
It also notes that Copilot on Windows is still evolving and that Microsoft encourages feedback via the Copilot UI. This matches a pattern where some users prefer the web experience when native apps feel unstable or limited.
What can be done within these constraints
Based on the documented behavior:
- For large code or documents, splitting into smaller sections and working iteratively is the supported pattern today. Copilot is optimized for shorter, focused inputs rather than assembling many large attachments into a single coherent project.
- For configuration help on Windows or Microsoft 365 apps, Copilot is best used alongside official product documentation, since the documentation is guaranteed to match specific versions and is updated independently of the model.
- For issues with missing features or broken UI (e.g., grayed-out upload buttons, inconsistent Copilot behavior in Office apps), signing out and back in, updating Office/Windows, or re-adding the account has resolved some user issues in practice.

In summary, the context supports that Copilot is under active development, with changing integrations, prompt limits, and safety behavior. It also confirms that inaccuracies and constraints are expected and that Microsoft is iterating on the product rather than abandoning it. The specific frustrations described (size limits, outdated app navigation, conservative image filters, and unstable desktop apps) are consistent with known limitations and ongoing changes, but the context does not support the conclusion that Copilot as a whole is in a “death spiral.”

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Is Copilot in a death spiral?

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