Microsoft first unveiled plans to let users create AI agents in Copilot Studio — its low- or no-code AI development platform — in May with a private preview for select customers.
Generative AI (genAI) agents can be seen as the next stage in the evolution of conversational AI assistants such as Microsoft’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While AI assistants respond directly to a user’s instructions — such as drafting an email or summarizing a document — autonomous AI agents are triggered by events and can perform more complex, multi-step processes on their own.
For example, a business could configure an AI agent to respond to the arrival of a customer email. At this point, the AI agent can look up the sender’s account details, check for past communications, and then take a range of actions — such as checking inventory 0r asking the customer for preferences — on its own.
There are a wide range of potential use cases, according to Microsoft, with the ability to tailor AI agents to a variety of tasks, from employee onboarding to supply chain automation.
“We think of agents as the new apps for an AI-powered world,” said Bryan Goode, corporate vice president for business Applications at Microsoft.
AI agents can be created via a no-code graphical interface in Copilot Studio, meaning no software development is required, according to Microsoft. Agents can then be published and accessed in variety of places: from Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant, on a website, or within an app.
The new Copilot AI agents can help take sales orders, for exaample.
Microsoft
Goode sees a broad appeal for workers outside of developers and IT: “We think everyone will need to be able to create agents in the future, much like how everyone can create spreadsheets or presentations in Microsoft 365,” he said.
“Agents really represent the democratization of AI for many enterprise users who have specific tasks they want to accomplish, but have no desire to become AI experts,” said Jack Gold, principal analyst with business consultancy J. Gold Associates.
Microsoft has taken steps to mitigate the impact of “hallucinations” –—a problem that’s exacerbated when AI agents can act independently and are given access to business applications.
For example, agents created for Dynamics will require human approval before carrying out certain actions, said Goode, such as preparing outbound communications. A viewable record of actions taken by an AI agent and why it took a decision is also kept in Copilot Studio.
Nevertheless, hallucinations will continue to be a consideration for businesses that deploy AI agents, said Rowan Curran, senior analyst at Forrester.
“Buyers are rightly excited about the potential of agentic AI systems, but the reality of implementation is going to be just as challenging, if not more so, than the current generation of advanced RAG [retrieval-augmented generation] systems,” Curran said. “Having a strong data foundation will be essential for building useful AI agents: data quality and management aren’t problems that can be swept under the rug.”
Microsoft is developing 10 pre-configured AI agents for its Dynamics 365 business application suite. These include a “sales qualification agent” for Dynamics 365 Sales, a “sales order agent” for Dynamics 365 Business Central, and a “case management agent” Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The AI agents for Dynamics 365 will be available “over the coming months,” a Microsoft spokesperson said, with pricing and licensing details to be announced closer to the general availability launch.
Microsoft is not alone in building AI agents into its products: a broad swath of vendors is doing the same, from business software vendors such as Salesforce, which unveiled its Agentforce platform last month, to SAP and ServiceNow, as well as digital work app vendors such as Atlassian and Asana.
“In the next couple of years, you’ll see virtually all enterprise solutions providers deploy agents into their apps,” said Gold.
Apple was behind on smartphones, until it wasn’t. It lagged the crowd in digital music players, until it didn’t. There was a time when it was woeful on wearables, until it that changed. It’s the same old story when it comes to Apple Intelligence, which critics say lags behind the industry; eventually, it won’t.
Think back a little longer than the Overton-allotted three news-cycles we are allowed to recollect these days, and you’ll see that in each of the above examples, Apple didn’t go for the industry jugular until it had a solution that did the job. The iPhone wasn’t Apple’s first phone; the iPod wasn’t the first excursion into music (pre-digital Apple had the Apple CD SC in ’87); and much in mobile harkens to the iconic Apple Newton (including Apple Intelligence).
Do bang the drum
But success is about hitting the drums when the audience is most prepared to dance to the beat. And while some of the most vocal AI proponents on social media seem to think the technology is going to save the world, the vast majority of humans haven’t quite begun tapping toes to this tune.
Hundreds of millions of people (i.e. humanity) who fear for their way of life, employment prospects, and the effort they’ve invested in their own and their children’s education may be threatened by AI, so they’re less enthused about the arrival of this new tech. They want to adopt these AI toys slowly and deliberately and aren’t at all inclined to move fast and break things — because they know, in essence, they are the “things” that will be broke.
Like any good DJ, you have to read the floor. With that in mind, perhaps it matters less that Apple is allegedly behind some of its starry-eyed AI competitors? ChatGPT being 25% more accurate than Siri today might be a challenge, but it can be overcome.
Perhaps it’s actually best for Cupertino to move slowly with cool tools while letting others run headlong into regulation, litigation, and rejection by a humans that no longer believe technology can save us.
What do they want?
While it is arguable that Apple’s high-risk strategy to market its new devices primarily on their capacity to run a tech that isn’t even shipping yet could be the equivalent of playing Milli Vanilli at a Taylor Swift party, Apple’s history shows it often plays the tunes its audience doesn’t even know its hungry to hear. So, what does the audience want?
More specifically, what doesn’t it want to hear (other than Milli Vanilli)?
31% of Americans are concerned that there is too much AI-generated content on social media.
30% of people fret that AI might make decisions without consent.
30% are concerned about the impact of AI on personal data and privacy.
28% are worried AI makes it easier to spread misinformation.
27% think AI will be used and abused by criminals and fraudsters.
75% of people think apps should tell us when they use AI.
28% of users are put off by ads for smartphones with AI.
60% of smartphone users have already used an AI solution
Men are more likely to purchase an AI smartphone than women.
There’s lots of other insights, and all of them challenge the gold rush toward wholesale adoption of AI tech in daily life. Consumers want this rush to be led by a credible company.
They want a guide they can trust. Maybe Apple is that guide?
A guide to trust in AI
The company’s years-long commitments to security and privacy, and its decades of high consumer satisfaction mean it has that ethos — that credibility — to help guide the mass market to a more trusting embrace of AI. Apple has achieved this before — consider how global mobile payment leader Apple Pay managed to build trust even though many were suspicious of digital money when it was introduced.
It is the same when it comes to AI. People will resist being rushed at breakneck speed to an uncertain future led by unaccountable billionaire’s making nebulous “commitments” to some undefined “responsible” AI. They want the tech to also deliver trust.
Maybe that need for trust is why OpenAI agreed not to gather user data in order to win Apple’s Apple Intelligence integration deal? Perhaps Apple’s decision to create a circle of trust within which AI can be used while delivering highly specific services where it thinks it can make a difference matches the mood music people are hungry for. At Apple’s core, the fighter still remains. Let’s hope it does not squander consumer resistance on pockets full of mumbled promises.
To avoid falling victim to such scams, companies are being warned to conduct a thorough screening of their job applicants — preferably with on-site interviews. It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on security involving remote access.
Warning signs to look out for include the use of Chrome Remote Desktop and AnyDesk software, if these are not part of the company’s regular equipment, and connections to Astrill VPN IP addresses. North Korean IT workers also tend to be reluctant to make video calls and often claim that their webcam is not working. However, according to Secureworks, they apparently have started experimenting with new software to handle video calls in the future.
Microsoft Office — best known for its Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook productivity applications — is how billions of people around the world work and study, whether they do it from home, an office, a classroom, or a combination of those. This suite of productivity tools is used by people working in more than 100 languages in nearly every country in the world, and it’s available in versions for personal, small business, enterprise, and educational use.
But there is more than one way to buy Office — or, rather, to buy the license to use it. There’s the “perpetual” version of Office that’s available as a one-time purchase: the current version is Office 2024. Then there’s the subscription version: originally called Office 365, Microsoft 365 plans are available in both personal and business subscriptions. At the enterprise level, both Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans are available.
Microsoft has left no doubt: it wants you to use Microsoft 365, its cloud productivity platform. However, it also realizes that not all of its customers want to or can move to the cloud. For that reason, the company recently announced the release of Office 2024, almost apologetically:
Microsoft 365 is the best way to access the latest versions of the productivity apps that millions of people use every day to bring their ideas to life and power through tasks. But we know some of our customers still prefer a non-subscription way to access our familiar apps, which is why we’re releasing Office 2024 on October 1.
Available in consumer and small-business editions, this one-time purchase includes desktop versions of the core Office applications for a single Windows PC or Mac. For companies with more than five users, Microsoft offers Office LTSC 2024 to cater to organizations prioritizing an on-premises model. Office 2024 lacks many of the collaborative and cloud-powered features of Microsoft 365 apps, and its “locked-in-time” status means you won’t receive any new application features, just bug fixes and security updates.
Why choose to buy it one way and not the other? The answer can be complicated, especially because each suite of tools includes the same core applications, give or take. Here’s help deciding which version of Office is right for you or your company.
In this article:
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Plans and pricing
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Payment and licensing
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Servicing
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Do you want Microsoft to be your copilot?
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Why your internet connection matters
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Key questions to ask
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Plans and pricing
For personal use
Office Home 2024:$150, one-time purchase for use on one computer; includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote for Windows or macOS.
Microsoft 365 Personal:$70 a year or $7 a month (1 user, 5 devices); includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Teams, Editor, Clipchamp, Access*, Publisher*, Microsoft Defender, and OneDrive with 1TB cloud storage; apps available for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and web. Microsoft Copilot Pro is available as an add-on.
Microsoft 365 Family:$100 a year or $10 a month (6 users, 5 devices each); includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Teams, Editor, Clipchamp, Access*, Publisher*, Microsoft Defender, and OneDrive with 1TB cloud storage per user; apps available for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and web. Microsoft Copilot Pro is available as an add-on.
* Access and Publisher are available as Windows apps only; support for Publisher ends in 2026.
For small businesses
Office Home & Business 2024:$250, one-time purchase for use on one computer; includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook.
Microsoft 365 Apps for business:$99/user/year or $10/user/month (up to 300 users, 5 devices per user); includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneDrive with 1TB cloud storage per user. Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard, and Premium:plans range from $72/user/year to $264/user/year (up to 300 users); tools included depend on the level of your subscription. Desktop versions of Word, Excel, and other Office apps (installable on 5 devices per user) require a Standard plan or higher; the Basic plan offers only web and mobile versions. All plans include Exchange email hosting, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive with 1TB cloud storage per user. The Premium plan adds advanced security and management features. Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on.
For enterprises
Office LTSC Standard 2024 and Professional Plus 2024:available only through volume licensing; contact Microsoft for pricing. LTSC stands for Long Term Servicing Channel; according to Microsoft, it’s designed for regulated devices that can’t accept updates for security reasons and for systems that don’t connect to the internet. (Note, however, that it’s the only nonsubscription version of Office available for large organizations.) The Standard edition includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote for Windows or macOS (1 device per user); Professional Plus adds Access.* Teams is not included but is available as a separate download.
Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise:$144/user/year (5 devices per user); includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access*, Publisher*, and OneDrive with 1TB cloud storage per user. Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot are available as add-ons.
Office 365 E1, E3, and E5:plans range from $93/user/year to $429/user/year; apps included depend on the level of your subscription. Desktop versions of Word, Excel, and other Office apps require an E3 plan or higher; the E1 plan offers only web and mobile versions. All plans include Exchange email hosting, SharePoint, and OneDrive with 1TB cloud storage per user. The E3 plan offers up to 5TB of storage per user, and the E5 plan adds advanced security and management features. Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot are available as add-ons.
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5:plans range from $405/user/year to $657/user/year; these plans offer most of the same features as the Office 365 E3 and E5 plans, and also include Windows and additional Microsoft apps such as Visio, Loop, and Clipchamp. Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot are available as add-ons.
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Payment and licensing
One big difference between the Office 2024 and Microsoft 365 options is how you pay for them. If you are buying a “perpetual license” (such as with Office Home & Business 2024 or Office LTSC 2024), you pay a larger sum up front than with the subscription’s offerings under the Microsoft 365 brand, but you do so only once. When you subscribe to any of the Microsoft 365 plans, you pay annually or monthly for as long as you use the product.
Office 2024: A perpetual license
Whether you buy a single copy of Office 2024 or download hundreds of seats via volume licensing, Microsoft calls this is a “one-time purchase” because you pay only once, not every month. Labels like “perpetual” technically note the type of license rather than payment methodology, but in this case, the kind of license is tied to whether it was bought outright or simply “rented.”
Microsoft defines the term as when “…you pay a single, up-front cost to get Office applications for one computer.” Up-front is the key adjective there. You have to ante up the entire purchase price before you get the software.
That purchase of a license to legally run the software gives you the right to use that version of Office 2024 in perpetuity. In other words, the license has no expiration date, and you may run the suite for as long as you want. Pay for Office 2024 this year and use it for as long as you’d like.
The gotcha is that if you want new features that come out with the next update, you will have to pay full price again when the next version comes out. There are no upgrade options on the perpetual license packages.
Microsoft 365: Office as a service
Microsoft 365 is a subscription service, the purchase method Microsoft would prefer you choose, where you pay the software giant monthly or annually. There is a discount, sometimes a tempting one, for going with the annual payment plan over the monthly one. (All enterprise plans require an annual commitment.) And the company is always sweetening this pot by offering more apps than you get with the perpetual license products and with a continuous supply of new features.
Like any subscription, Microsoft 365 provides a service — in this case, the right to run the suite’s applications and access the associated services — only as long as you continue to pay. Stop paying, and rights to run the apps expire. This happens in a progressive way, giving you time to download your data or update your payment plan, whichever you choose.
For 30 days after nonpayment, your plan will be “Expired.” You will still have access to all your apps and files. If you don’t activate it again while it’s in the Expired stage, it moves to “Disabled,” where it will stay for 90 days. You won’t be able to access your apps or data until you pay up. If you still don’t pay for your plan, it will be “Deleted.” At that point, it’s gone.
A Microsoft 365 license, then, is contingent on sustained payments. Halt the latter, and the license is revoked. Restart the payments — but don’t wait too long — to restore the license.
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Servicing
Although payments define one difference between Office 2024 and Microsoft 365, Microsoft’s development and release pace is ultimately more important to users — and the IT professionals who support them.
Think of Office 2024 as traditional software — a bundle of tools that typically don’t change much until the next major version. That holds for servicing, too. Microsoft does release monthly security and quality updates for the perpetual license versions of Office. (You can check from within any Office app if there are updates available. From, say, a Word document, go to File > Account and look for Product Information. Then choose Update Options > Update Now.)
But Office 2024 doesn’t get the continually upgraded features and functionality that Microsoft 365 does. Feature-wise, what you get when you buy the suite is it. If you want the updates, at some point in the future, you will have to buy whatever version Microsoft is selling as a perpetual license then.
Microsoft regularly releases feature and security updates for Microsoft 365 apps, though. And it releases them as they happen. As new features and functionality accrete, and the applications in Microsoft 365 evolve, Microsoft will decide it’s time for a new version of Office. It will then package some of those features into an upgraded suite for customers who continue to make one-time, up-front purchases. How long they keep doing this likely depends on how long there is a demand for these locked-in-time versions.
One other important note: Office 2024 and Office LTSC 2024 will be supported with security updates only through October 9, 2029. That’s just five years of support, down from seven years in Office 2019 and 10 years in prior releases. In contrast, with Microsoft 365 subscriptions, support never runs out — as long as you keep paying, of course.
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Do you want Microsoft to be your copilot?
Microsoft also recently released Microsoft 365 Copilot, which Microsoft 365 business and enterprise subscribers can add for an additional $30 per user per month. The AI-powered productivity assistant is designed to enhance Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications, using large language models (LLMs) to understand your prompts, generate content, and assist with tasks. There’s also Copilot Pro, which brings many of the same features to Microsoft 365 consumer accounts for an extra $20 per month.
Key features include the following:
Natural-language prompts: You can communicate with Copilot in plain language.
Content generation and task automation: Copilot can help you create content, such as emails, documents, presentations, and code, as well as automate repetitive tasks.
Data analysis: Copilot can analyze data and provide insights to help you make informed decisions.
Neither Microsoft 365 Copilot nor Copilot Pro is available without a Microsoft 365 subscription, though — so if you want Copilot integration with your Office apps, Office 2024 won’t get you there.
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Why your internet connection matters
One reason to choose Office 2024 over Microsoft 365 is internet access, or lack of it. If you don’t have reliable access to the cloud, can’t be connected to the internet for security reasons, or — for whatever reason — your computer is often offline, this is the type of software you need.
In fact, internet access is one of the main reasons Microsoft can’t force everyone to subscribe to Microsoft 365. Microsoft 365 runs in apps that are downloaded to your computer, phone, or tablet, but those apps require near-constant internet access, especially if you use OneDrive and store your files in the cloud.
In standard use, Microsoft 365 may stop working if it can’t connect to the internet, depending on the features you’re using and the availability of offline capabilities within those applications. For some use cases, this is a deal breaker. However, Microsoft is looking to address that concern. Extended offline access allows devices with Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise to remain active for up to six months without internet connectivity.
Office 2024, on the other hand, does not rely as heavily on an internet connection to operate, save files, and self-update. You can connect it when you have access and work offline when you don’t. This, as much as cost and a desire to stick to old-school software distribution models, is, perhaps, the most compelling reason to insist on one of the perpetual license products.
Office 2024 vs. Microsoft 365: Key questions to ask
If you aren’t sure which version and pricing model is for you and your company, here are a few questions to ask yourself and your team:
Budget and pricing: How much are you willing to spend up front? What is a more attractive pricing model: a one-time expense or a recurring monthly or annual fee? What cost-saving options, such as volume licensing, are available?
Features and functionality: What specific features and applications do you need, and do you require specialized tools or integrations?
Deployment and management: Do you prefer cloud-based for its agility or on-premises deployment, perhaps for compliance reasons? Do you have IT resources to manage on-premises installations?
Collaboration and teamwork: How important is real-time collaboration? Do you need features like shared workspaces, online meetings, and file sharing?
Security and compliance: What are your organization’s security and compliance requirements? Does the delivery option you’re considering provide the necessary security features and certifications?
Updates and support: How often do you want to receive updates and new features, and do you need ongoing technical support?
Future-proofing: How do you envision your organization’s technology needs evolving? Does a subscription-based model provide the flexibility you need, or are you more concerned with ensuring stability in the coming months and years? Do you want to get a jump on generative AI features embedded in your productivity apps?
Whichever license you ultimately choose, you will get many of the same tools. And the reasons for making one choice over another may have less to do with price and features than with how you or your users work, support and security needs, reliability of internet access, online storage and collaboration needs, and how excited (or annoyed) you or your users are likely to be by new features that turn up, like a gift, in the software.
Choosing between a Microsoft 365 subscription and Office LTSC 2024 depends on your organization’s specific needs. For those seeking a dynamic, cloud-powered workspace with real-time collaboration and advanced features, Microsoft 365 offers a compelling solution. However, if on-premises stability and a single purchase model are paramount, Office LTSC may be the better fit. Consider your organization’s future-proofing needs and collaboration requirements when making this critical decision.
This article was originally published in July 2017 and most recently updated in October 2024.
Deepak Jain, CEO of a Maryland-based IT services firm, has been indicted for fraud and making false statements after allegedly falsifying a Tier 4 data center certification to secure a $10.7 million contract with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The charges, filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and made public on Wednesday, claim that Jain and his co-conspirators deceived the SEC by creating a fictitious certifier, “Uptime Council,” to falsely verify his firm’s data center as meeting the highest reliability standards.
Apple released a claustrophobic submarine movie for Apple Vision Pro earlier this month, and it gave me a sinking feeling.
The movie Submerged was neither augmented reality (AR) nor virtual reality (VR) nor 360-degree video. It was more like 180-degree video. According to reviews, the experience was as immersive as a submarine with a hole in it.
But wait a minute, you might say. I thought Apple Vision Pro was supposed to be mainly AR.
While the tech media and even the mainstream press point out that Apple Vision Pro sales aren’t anywhere near as high as Apple expected, a community of diehards still use the product heavily every day. The main rationale for these heavy users, the most practical and productive usage, is to expand the desktop of a MacBook Pro to gigantic proportions as AR displays floating in the air.
That general concept — using AR for desktop computing rather than video games, holographic hijinks, or teleportation meetings — is what Sightful’s Spacetop computing platform was all about.
The company’s Spacetop G1 was a one-of-a-kind augmented reality laptop that used AR glasses instead of a screen. The system displayed a virtual 100-in. display in front of the user anchored in space relative to the keyboard. The system ran on a proprietary Android-based operating system called SpaceOS; it functioned like a Chromebook, running apps from the cloud instead of desktop applications running from the device. I first told you about it in June.
I use the past tense here because, while the Spacetop G1 was scheduled to ship this month, it’s been killed off. The company emailed people who pre-ordered it and informed them their deposit would be refunded and the product would be canceled.
Instead, Sightful is now working on software that enables Windows PCs to project their displays onto Xreal’s AR display glasses, the same brand that shipped with the Spacetop.
Now, AR virtual desktops are a feature, not a product
Sightful has discovered that AR virtual desktop screens are a feature, not a product. Unfortunately, their offering will be limited and, essentially, unnecessary. While their integrated package was one-of-a-kind, their software will be joining a small but crowded market.
Xreal, for example, already supports both Windows and MacOS using its own Nebula software. (It’s unclear why users might want Sightful’s software instead of Xreal’s.)
Viture One supports Windows and MacOS, enabling users to set up virtual displays in different configurations.
TCL NXTWEAR S is compatible with Windows devices, allowing users to view their PC screen through the glasses.
Lenovo ThinkReality A3 works with Windows machines to output virtual desktops with up to three virtual screens.
And there are others.
Another interesting new product is the Visor, a lightweight spatial computing device vaguely similar to the Apple Vision Pro developed by Immersed, an Austin-based startup. It features two 4K OLED screens with a 100-degree field of view, 6DoF tracking, and hand and eye tracking capabilities. Weighing only 186g, it’s significantly lighter than competitors like the Meta Quest 3 and the Vision Pro.
And like the Vision Pro, Visor is VR, creating the illusion of AR via passthrough video.
Powered by the Qualcomm XR2+ Gen 2 chip, the Visor is designed primarily for productivity. It allows users to work with multiple virtual screens in both passthrough and fully virtual modes. That said, recent demos have shown issues with readability, heat management, and passthrough quality. The product gives users five HD screens on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Starting at $1,050 for outright purchase, with a subscription model also available, the Immersed Visor is set to begin shipping limited “Founder’s Edition” units next month, with wider availability in April 2025. While promising, potential buyers should approach with caution, given the device’s ongoing development and the challenges observed in recent demonstrations.
The home run the industry hasn’t hit yet
Some of the AR glasses mentioned above support hand gestures via sensors in the glasses, and most anchor the desktop screens fully in place.
Sightful’s Spacetop G1 had something going for it that none of these other solutions did: Integration with the laptop. The Spacetop G1’s keyboard base, which contained its own Qualcomm processor, served as a spatially tracked anchor for the AR glasses. This enabled the system to maintain a consistent positioning of the virtual displays relative to the physical keyboard.
The device had a depth camera mounted above the keyboard that tracked the user’s position relative to the keyboard and where they looked. This provided a significantly better AR experience when sitting in front of the keyboard.
The Spacetop G1 incorporated sensors that mapped the physical environment to ensure virtual elements were accurately anchored in the real world. And it used customized XREAL glasses, with cameras specifically designed to detect the Spacetop.
In summary, the system considered both the user’s position and the surrounding environment, and the glasses and the base unit worked together to improve screen anchoring and gesture control. Positioning sensors on a laptop and glasses is far better than on the glasses alone.
What we need from the industry is laptops with sensors built in and designed to work in concert with AR glasses for screen position, eye-tracking, and gesture control.
Apple doesn’t want to support cheaper, non-Apple solutions, so forget about Apple doing this. The Vision Pro experience is already amazing — though the price of admission is $3,500. (Apple is expected to ship lower-priced Vision Pro models next year at the earliest.)
The two best platforms for AR glasses support
The two best platforms for dedicated hardware support for AR glasses are Windows and ChromeOS.
ChromeOS is especially interesting because that platform is often used by schools and others looking for very low-cost hardware. By optimizing AR glasses for virtual desktops, you not only get a very low-cost laptop, but also a very low-cost giant display. Or two. Or three.
Microsoft is uniquely positioned to offer Windows laptops with built-in AR glasses support using Microsoft-branded glasses. In fact, the entire Windows and Linux OEM market should be developing or partnering with companies that make AR glasses.
As a digital nomad who travels abroad while working and loves giant screens that are too big to carry, I’m super excited about virtual desktop screens. All we need now is to optimize the experience by laptop-glasses integration.
Sightful had the right idea, but it may have been the wrong company. It’s extremely difficult for a startup to enter the PC market with a usage model that has yet to be tried. That kind of leap can normally come only from an established giant with money to burn.
Speaking of which, somebody [cough!] Google! [cough!] should buy Sightful, its five or so patents, two founders, 60 employees, and vision for AR laptops, and convert their ideas into a mainstream OS, such as ChromeOS.
AR is definitely going to happen. The concept of using it to give tiny laptops gigantic virtual screens is also going to happen. We need the industry to optimize and mainstream this idea so that it doesn’t belong exclusively to a few hundred thousand Apple Vision Pro enthusiasts.
Laptops should just come with the built in sensors and OS support, with the glasses available separately as just another display option. A high-quality experience with virtual desktop screens in a laptop shouldn’t cost $7,000 (the combined price of a Macbook Pro plus Apple Vision Pro). It should cost $700 for a low-end Chromebook and $1,000 for a Surface laptop.
Virtual screens are far better for mobility, far better for the environment and far better for the wallet than giant physical displays. By improving the user experience (via laptop-embedded sensors and OS integration) and lowering the price, virtual screens could become serious mainstream options for how we all use our laptops.
Apple turned your iPhone into your wallet one decade ago. Ten years on, and the company continues to extend the digitization of personal payments, with small-scale loans, car rentals, and everything else that used to occupy space in your pocket.
In the face of regulatory pressure, the company recently agreed to open up some elements of its payment/wallet services. With that in mind, it is interesting to note some of the upcoming additions to the service that Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, outlined in an extensive post to celebrate 10 years of Apple Pay.
In almost every case, those additions reflect wider support for third-party payments solutions, in particular those that provision similar deferred payment services to those briefly offered by Apple Pay Later.
What’s coming next from Apple’s wallet replacement schemes
Apple Pay has probably managed to become the world’s most widely used mobile payment service. Apple claims it has “hundreds of millions” of consumers in 78 markets, and notes that it is supported at checkout across tens of millions of websites, apps, and physical stores.
With that in mind, the new feature additions the company is promising for its service are likely to have some impact, particularly as over 11,000 banks also support use of Apple Pay. With that context, it may in future be seen as highly significant that by introducing support for in-app short term credit, Apple is kick-starting a business in casual loans.
Apple’s list of future additions includes:
Starting in iOS 18, Apple supports installment loans and payments. That means consumers can purchase items using short-term credit from Affirm and Klarna (US) and Monzo Flex and Klarna (UK) when they check out with Apple Pay online and in the app.
Users in Canada will be able to use Klarna’s flexible payment options at checkout with Apple Pay online and in-app in the future.
The company promises to introduce support to access installment payment options from eligible credit or debit cards when making online purchases with Apple Pay in the US with Citi, Synchrony, and across eligible, participating Apple Pay issuers with Fiserv; in Australia with ANZ; in Singapore with DBS; in Spain with CaixaBank; and in the UK with HSBC, NewDay, and Zilch, with more issuers to follow.
US Apple Pay users can redeem rewards with eligible Discover credit cards when they check out with Apple Pay. Support for other issuers will follow.
In some markets, Apple Pay is now also available when using third-party browsers so long as they offer support for WebSockets.
Adding cards has been improved with Tap to Provision, which lets users add a credit or debit card to Apple Wallet by tapping an eligible card to the back of their iPhone.
Next year, customers in the US will also be able to see their PayPal balance when using their PayPal debit card in Apple Wallet.
In a rare interview to mark the anniversary, Bailey also hinted at other future services, including an extension to the company’s digital car key service for car rental firms. “Being able to book a car rental, confirm your authentication and identity … you can imagine that a car rental company is going to issue you a digital key, and that key could be used to unlock and use a car,” she said.
The security thing
That Apple is being forced to open up aspects of its business may pose challenges along the way, principally around security and privacy when using these systems.
“We’re always looking for new ways to make using Apple Wallet convenient while delivering unparalleled security and peace of mind,” the Apple Pay chief said.
“We know how important it is for customers to feel secure and trust that their financial transactions are private when making a payment. That’s why we’re always working to safeguard consumers, while also enabling banks to have industry-low levels of fraud for Apple Pay transactions. And it’s also why Apple Pay was designed to protect users’ highly sensitive personal and financial information, like their card number, which is never shared with merchants. Our customers trust that when they use Apple Pay anywhere, they can have the peace of mind that their payments are protected.”
The company’s ability to provide a point of trust is a significant asset to any digital payments business, and the path toward that kind of card-free future is already peppered with illustrations of what’s at stake when even credible companies see security undermined. In London, UK, for example, public transport operator Transport for London (TfL) recently suffered an attack in which customer data, including payment and password details, may have been exfiltrated. That incident took elements of TfL’s operations offline for weeks.
The evolution of the digital wallet
Consumer confidence, high usage, and market-proven security mean Apple continues to extend the reach of the service, which opened up its last new market in September when iPhone users in Oman became able to switch on the service. Digital payments in that nation have been accelerating thanks to a push to them from the Central Bank of Oman.
Meanwhile, Apple also continues to convert holdouts such as Home Depot and H-E-B, both of which finally introduced support for Apple Pay in the US over the last few weeks.
The move to digital everything has accelerated even as Apple Pay has progressed. Just a decade ago, US consumers were quite resistant to mobile payments, though engagement was far higher across the water in Europe.
However, Apple Pay’s release coincided with a major investment in mobile bandwidth across North America, and as that infrastructure rolled out, consumers began to vote with their fingers and use digital payments more.
But it’s not just payments. Recent data from PYMNTS Intelligence found that US consumers now engage in an average of 14 different digital payment-related activities every month, from bill payments to telehealth to ordering groceries or entertainment services.
Of course, this engagement with digital payments for things we already do also sets the foundations for the emergence of additional digital-only services.
With that in mind, any business leader should consider the extent to which habituation with digital process creates wider opportunity for digitization across product and services development and how your business works internally. “Networks will become the catalyst for growth, profits and scale because they have the power to connect stakeholders and simplify and monetize value exchange,” wrote PYMNTS contributor and Market Platform Dynamics CEO Karen Webster.
What next?
If you think about it, the move to digital payments, and the repercussions of doing it, make even more sense retrospectively. After all, when Apple set out to replace your wallet all those years ago, that replacement also meant the company’s products and services digitized the most personal parts of most people’s existence: identity, keys, payments, mass transit — even riding a bike.
Today, with so much that can be defined as personal having become digitized, it is more vital than ever that Apple succeeds in its mission to protect user privacy and security while also offering the personal convenience of the digital wallet. At the same time, this also means that at a very core level, digital identity has been unleashed and fresh opportunity knocks, even as mobile banking remains a top three digital activity across most nations.
Next step? B2B payments, probably, given that banking regulation, antiquated internal ordering systems, and lack of service provision mean that in some markets just 30% of enterprise payments made are digital, even while 70% of transactions take place online. In other words, now that wallets are digital, there’s still plenty of room to innovate and grow.
No Android 15? No problem. You can still enjoy some of the fancy new features from Google’s latest Android version — no matter who made your current device or how old it might be.
Android 15 officially landed in the world with a bit of a thud in early September, when Google released the software’s source code, but the first real rollout only just got going this week — with current Pixel devices, as usual, being at the front of the pack.
How long it’ll take other Android device-makers to follow suit is, as always, an open question. (Seriously — have you seen my breakdowns over time?!) But while we can’t force those companies to make timely software support more of a priority, we can get out ahead of ’em and get creative to bring some Android-15-inspired splendor your way.
Here, specifically, are seven Android 15 features you can add onto any Android phone today — along with two bonus features that were under development but didn’t quite make the cut into this latest Android update.
Get ready for a massive upgrade to your Android experience — no official rollouts needed.
Up first is the highest profile new Android 15 feature — and, in many ways, the easiest one to emulate on devices that aren’t yet running Android 15.
It’s called Private Space, and it’s essentially a way to add an extra layer of security onto sensitive apps or apps with especially important info. You can require authentication to open such apps and even hide ’em completely out of sight in a special locked-down area of your app drawer, if you really want to keep ’em tucked away.
Google’s Private Space feature, as seen on a Pixel phone running Android 15.
JR Raphael, IDG
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: First, if you’re using a phone made by Samsung or OnePlus, it’s likely you already have a similar sort of feature on your device and just waiting to be found! Try searching your system settings for either secure folder or app lock to see if it’s there.
Otherwise, a third-party app called Applock Pro can bring something similar onto any Android gadget. It isn’t quite as secure as an operating-system-integrated option, since someone could technically uninstall it. But it’s the next-best thing, and it has some mechanisms for masking itself to minimize the odds of anyone even noticing its presence.
Android 15 feature #2: App pairs
One of the most useful Android 15 features is the ability to create preset pairs of apps that then open together in a ready-to-roll split screen with just a single tap on your home screen.
srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?quality=50&strip=all 750w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=300%2C290&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=721%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 721w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=174%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 174w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=87%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 87w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=497%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 497w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=372%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 372w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=259%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 259w" width="750" height="725" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px">One tap to two apps, with Android 15’s new app pairs possibility.
Your idly charging Android device is more useful than ever with Google’s new Android 15 Home Controls screen saver. And while the name may sound about as non-work-related as possible, don’t be fooled: You can fill that panel up with any combination of connected-device controls you want, ranging from thermostats to lights and all sorts of other workday-aiding points of easy access (especially if you’ve got a home office).
The Android 15 Home Controls screen saver is incredibly handy — and also incredibly easy to emulate on any Android version.
JR Raphael, IDG
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: The aptly named Widget Screensaver app is the key to bringing this very same intelligence onto whatever device you’re using. Just set it up, following my guide, and be sure to select the Google Home “Favorites” widget during the configuration.
Android 15 feature #4: Theft protection
Google’s touting a trio of new theft protection features as part of its Android 15 rollout, but in actuality, you don’t need Android 15 to get any of those elements in your life.
Android 15 adds a spruced-up volume panel into the operating system — with larger, more easily adjusted sliders for specific sorts of media volumes as well as a more prominent button to shift your phone’s audio output from the phone itself to any connected devices.
Android’s volume panel gets a major makeover as of Android 15, but you don’t need the rollout to enjoy something similar.
JR Raphael, IDG
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: The secret here is a saucy little app called Precise Volume 2.0. It replaces your standard system volume panel with a completely customizable alternative — and, as I outline in this easy-to-follow guide, one of its options is emulating the Android 15 volume interface.
Android 15 feature #6: Expanded app names
A small but welcome feature in Android 15 is a new toggle within Google’s Pixel Launcher settings that lets you stop the system from cutting off the names of longer apps in your app drawer.
It’s a subtle touch, for sure — but man, is it a nice one.
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: Most custom Android launchers offer similar sorts of controls. I’d look at the time-tested Nova Launcher, if you’re aiming to create something close to a standard setup but with lots more flexibility.
Android 15 feature #7: App archiving
When you’ve got an app you aren’t actively using but don’t want to uninstall entirely, Android 15 can archive it for you — meaning the software compresses it, in a sense, and keeps the core files present while removing lots of space-taking and permission-requiring elements.
Then, if you ever want to use the app again, you can simply restore it and pick right back up where you left off.
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: This one’s easy — ’cause in a rarely realized twist, the same sort of system actually launched as a feature of the Android Play Store last year! Just open up the Play Store on your device, tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner, and select “Settings.” Then, tap the “General” section and look for the “Automatically archive apps” toggle to fire up the system and get it going.
One of the most intriguing under-development Android features is something that didn’t ultimately make the cut for Android 15 but may show up in a future quarterly update or perhaps even another Android version down the line — and that’s something Google’s calling notification cooldown.
It’s an option to “gradually lower the notification volume when you get many successive notifications from the same app” — either in general or specific only to notifications that are considered “conversations.” That way, when someone messages you in a rapid-fire style, you can avoid getting annoying alert after annoying alert at a rate of one ding per every seven seconds.
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: As long-time Android Intelligence readers know, you can grant yourself that very same sanity-saving superpower with even more versatility on any device right now — if you know where to look.
While that hasn’t yet happened and seems to be something being saved for a future release, you can give yourself that same efficiency-enhancing ability this second on any Android device — with far more flexibility and compatibility than Google’s own native system is even likely to provide.
And there ya have it — seven Android 15 features and two extra features not even present in Android 15 that are at your fingertips today. You may be waiting a while longer yet for Android 15 itself to reach you, but with these readily available upgrades, you won’t be missing out on too much in the meantime.
No Android 15? No problem. You can still enjoy some of the fancy new features from Google’s latest Android version — no matter who made your current device or how old it might be.
Android 15 officially landed in the world with a bit of a thud in early September, when Google released the software’s source code, but the first real rollout only just got going this week — with current Pixel devices, as usual, being at the front of the pack.
How long it’ll take other Android device-makers to follow suit is, as always, an open question. (Seriously — have you seen my breakdowns over time?!) But while we can’t force those companies to make timely software support more of a priority, we can get out ahead of ’em and get creative to bring some Android-15-inspired splendor your way.
Here, specifically, are seven Android 15 features you can add onto any Android phone today — along with two bonus features that were under development but didn’t quite make the cut into this latest Android update.
Get ready for a massive upgrade to your Android experience — no official rollouts needed.
Up first is the highest profile new Android 15 feature — and, in many ways, the easiest one to emulate on devices that aren’t yet running Android 15.
It’s called Private Space, and it’s essentially a way to add an extra layer of security onto sensitive apps or apps with especially important info. You can require authentication to open such apps and even hide ’em completely out of sight in a special locked-down area of your app drawer, if you really want to keep ’em tucked away.
Google’s Private Space feature, as seen on a Pixel phone running Android 15.
JR Raphael, IDG
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: First, if you’re using a phone made by Samsung or OnePlus, it’s likely you already have a similar sort of feature on your device and just waiting to be found! Try searching your system settings for either secure folder or app lock to see if it’s there.
Otherwise, a third-party app called Applock Pro can bring something similar onto any Android gadget. It isn’t quite as secure as an operating-system-integrated option, since someone could technically uninstall it. But it’s the next-best thing, and it has some mechanisms for masking itself to minimize the odds of anyone even noticing its presence.
Android 15 feature #2: App pairs
One of the most useful Android 15 features is the ability to create preset pairs of apps that then open together in a ready-to-roll split screen with just a single tap on your home screen.
srcset="https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?quality=50&strip=all 750w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=300%2C290&quality=50&strip=all 300w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=721%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 721w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=174%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 174w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=87%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 87w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=497%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 497w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=372%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 372w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/google-pixel-android-15-app-pairs.webp?resize=259%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 259w" width="750" height="725" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px">One tap to two apps, with Android 15’s new app pairs possibility.
Your idly charging Android device is more useful than ever with Google’s new Android 15 Home Controls screen saver. And while the name may sound about as non-work-related as possible, don’t be fooled: You can fill that panel up with any combination of connected-device controls you want, ranging from thermostats to lights and all sorts of other workday-aiding points of easy access (especially if you’ve got a home office).
The Android 15 Home Controls screen saver is incredibly handy — and also incredibly easy to emulate on any Android version.
JR Raphael, IDG
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: The aptly named Widget Screensaver app is the key to bringing this very same intelligence onto whatever device you’re using. Just set it up, following my guide, and be sure to select the Google Home “Favorites” widget during the configuration.
Android 15 feature #4: Theft protection
Google’s touting a trio of new theft protection features as part of its Android 15 rollout, but in actuality, you don’t need Android 15 to get any of those elements in your life.
Android 15 adds a spruced-up volume panel into the operating system — with larger, more easily adjusted sliders for specific sorts of media volumes as well as a more prominent button to shift your phone’s audio output from the phone itself to any connected devices.
Android’s volume panel gets a major makeover as of Android 15, but you don’t need the rollout to enjoy something similar.
JR Raphael, IDG
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: The secret here is a saucy little app called Precise Volume 2.0. It replaces your standard system volume panel with a completely customizable alternative — and, as I outline in this easy-to-follow guide, one of its options is emulating the Android 15 volume interface.
Android 15 feature #6: Expanded app names
A small but welcome feature in Android 15 is a new toggle within Google’s Pixel Launcher settings that lets you stop the system from cutting off the names of longer apps in your app drawer.
It’s a subtle touch, for sure — but man, is it a nice one.
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: Most custom Android launchers offer similar sorts of controls. I’d look at the time-tested Nova Launcher, if you’re aiming to create something close to a standard setup but with lots more flexibility.
Android 15 feature #7: App archiving
When you’ve got an app you aren’t actively using but don’t want to uninstall entirely, Android 15 can archive it for you — meaning the software compresses it, in a sense, and keeps the core files present while removing lots of space-taking and permission-requiring elements.
Then, if you ever want to use the app again, you can simply restore it and pick right back up where you left off.
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: This one’s easy — ’cause in a rarely realized twist, the same sort of system actually launched as a feature of the Android Play Store last year! Just open up the Play Store on your device, tap your profile picture in the upper-right corner, and select “Settings.” Then, tap the “General” section and look for the “Automatically archive apps” toggle to fire up the system and get it going.
One of the most intriguing under-development Android features is something that didn’t ultimately make the cut for Android 15 but may show up in a future quarterly update or perhaps even another Android version down the line — and that’s something Google’s calling notification cooldown.
It’s an option to “gradually lower the notification volume when you get many successive notifications from the same app” — either in general or specific only to notifications that are considered “conversations.” That way, when someone messages you in a rapid-fire style, you can avoid getting annoying alert after annoying alert at a rate of one ding per every seven seconds.
📲 To bring the feature onto a non-Android-15 device: As long-time Android Intelligence readers know, you can grant yourself that very same sanity-saving superpower with even more versatility on any device right now — if you know where to look.
While that hasn’t yet happened and seems to be something being saved for a future release, you can give yourself that same efficiency-enhancing ability this second on any Android device — with far more flexibility and compatibility than Google’s own native system is even likely to provide.
And there ya have it — seven Android 15 features and two extra features not even present in Android 15 that are at your fingertips today. You may be waiting a while longer yet for Android 15 itself to reach you, but with these readily available upgrades, you won’t be missing out on too much in the meantime.
