Microsoft is ending Copilot support on smart TVs

Microsoft is ending Copilot functionality on all smart TVs this year. The news didn't come from an announcement. It surfaced in an on-screen notice on an LG TV, reported by Windows Central, saying the feature is scheduled to end during 2026 on a timeline set by Microsoft.

LG and Samsung announced Copilot on their TVs at CES 2025. Less than two years later it's going away, and owners are learning about it from a pop-up.

We don't think anyone will mourn this one. The TV version of Copilot was a friendly chat companion that could answer questions about what was on screen and suggest shows. That's a thin use case for a device people mostly want to just turn on and watch.

The rollout is the bigger lesson. Last December, an LG webOS update added a Copilot shortcut that users couldn't remove, and that opened the assistant's web app in a browser. People were angry enough that LG eventually let them delete it. When AI shows up on hardware you already own without your say, it costs trust, and that trust is hard to win back for the next feature.

The shutdown also tracks a strategy shift. Earlier this year Microsoft bundled chat, agents, and coding into a Copilot super app and leaned toward business and productivity rather than companionship. Cutting the TV integration fits that focus. I'd call that a reasonable call. Useful AI tends to earn its place where work gets done, not in every screen in the house.

The downside is for consumers who bought TVs partly on a feature list. Smart TV features that depend on a partner's cloud service can disappear at the partner's discretion, and this is another example. The way it was communicated, through a vague notice with no date, is the part we'd push back on.

The notice seen on LG TVs said Microsoft had decided to end support for Copilot on all TVs and that the feature may stop working shortly. Neither LG, Samsung, nor Microsoft had made a formal announcement at the time of the report.