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Android file transfer: How to manage, move, and sync files

January 16, 2025 /

When you think about your smartphone, apps and interfaces are probably the first things that come to mind. Beneath all that surface-level stuff, though, our modern mobile devices are filled with files — folders upon folders of ’em! — just like the clunky ol’ computers we’ve relied upon for ages.

We may not come face to face with our phones’ file systems too often, but it’s valuable to know they’re there — and to know how they can work for us when the need arises. Whether you’re looking to dig up downloaded PDFs and presentations, open up ZIP files that a client emailed you, or move files from your phone to a computer, tablet, or even another Android phone or an iPhone, you’ve got all sorts of options to get down to business.

Here’s everything you need to know to tap into your phone’s file managing and transferring powers.

Manage files on your Android phone

You might not realize it at a glance, but Android actually allows you to access a device’s entire file system — even from the device itself.

The key is finding the right file manager to handle the job. That type of app makes it incredibly easy to browse, search, and interact with all the files stored locally on your device as well as clean up your local storage to free up space. You can even compress or uncompress files and add extra encryption onto especially sensitive items.

You’ll likely need just a single standout Android file manager to handle all of that and then some. I’ve narrowed down the field to two top contenders — one that’s the best all-around option for most professionals and one that offers an extra-advanced and robust file management experience with all sorts of interesting extras.

Check out my Android file manager recommendations and see which path makes the most sense for you, then keep whichever app you end up with handy for on-demand file-wrangling right from your device.

Supplement your phone’s local storage

One little-known feature of Android is its ability to connect with external storage devices like USB memory sticks and even larger-capacity portable hard drives. A phone just has to support something known as USB On-The-Go, or USB OTG, in order for the connection to work.

A fair number of devices, including Google’s Pixel phones and many Samsung Galaxy products, offer such support. If you aren’t sure if your phone does, your best bet is to Google its name along with “USB OTG”; odds are, you’ll find the answer fairly quickly.

Provided your device supports USB OTG, all you need is a USB-A to USB-C adapter like this one made by Amazon. Use the adapter to plug the external drive into your phone, then look for a notification confirming the drive is connected.

Tap the “Explore” option within the notification, and that’s it: You can now browse and access all the files on your external drive.

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Look for the notification that pops up when an external drive is connected, and you’ll be browsing the drive’s contents in no time.

JR Raphael / IDG

When you’re finished, don’t forget to go back to the notification and tap “Eject” before disconnecting the drive.

Android file transfers for Windows computers

In addition to supporting external hard drives, your Android device can act as an external hard drive for fast file transfers with any computer. And with a Windows system, it’s especially easy to make that connection.

Just plug your Android device into any open USB port on your Windows computer, then turn on the phone’s screen and unlock it.

Swipe your finger down from the top of the screen, and you should see a notification about the current USB connection. At this point, it’ll probably tell you your phone is connected only for charging.

android file transfer to windows

After you connect your phone to your computer, a notification will let you prepare it for transferring files.

JR Raphael / IDG

Tap the notification and select “Transfer files” or “File transfer” in the menu that appears. If media files are all you’re planning to move, you could also use the “Transfer photos” (sometimes listed as “PTP”) option, which’ll treat your phone like a digital camera.

Once you’ve made your selection, go to your desktop and open up a File Explorer window — using whatever method lines up with your Windows workflow:

  • Click the File Explorer icon in your taskbar
  • Open the Start menu and click This PC or Computer
  • Click the This PC, Computer, or My Computer icon on your desktop

Then look for an icon representing your phone alongside other portable devices and drives. Click or double-click that icon, and ta-da: You’ll be staring at your Android phone’s internal storage. You can now click around and browse folders, drag and drop files between your phone and PC, or manipulate the data in any way you want — as if it were any other ordinary drive.

Android file transfers for Macs

Got a Mac? The Android file transfer process is a bit more complicated for you — but fear not, for it’s still reasonably easy to get going.

The main difference is that before things will work, you’ll need to download and install a program that’ll allow your Mac to interact with your Android device. Google used to have its own program for this purpose called Android File Transfer, but the company seems to have quietly phased that app out over time (which isn’t entirely surprising, as Mac owners had been complaining about its reliability for years).

What you’ll want instead is the favorably reviewed third-party Commander One. It costs $30 for a single license or $100 for a five-user team license. Once installed and configured, it’ll let you browse your Android device’s storage, transfer files in either direction, and even interact with data on the phone or tablet without transferring anything.

Or — well, skip down to the final section of this story for one other option.

Android file transfers for Chromebooks

You’d expect file transfers between Android phones and Chromebooks to be as simple as can be, considering that Google’s the driving force behind both of those platforms — and by golly, you’d be absolutely right.

Just like with Windows, all you’ve gotta do to connect your Android phone to a ChromeOS device is plug it into any open USB port on the computer, then tap the USB charging notification on the phone and select the appropriate option for file transferring.

Once you do that, a prompt to open the ChromeOS Files app should automatically appear on your Chromebook, with your phone loaded as the active storage focus. You can then simply drag and drop files in either direction as needed.

android file transfer to chromeos

Pulling up your Android phone’s storage on a Chromebook is as easy as can be.

JR Raphael / IDG

Told ya it was easy! And you’ve got one more option yet.

Wireless Android file transfers

Good ol’ wired transfers are fast and reliable, sure — but these days, you can also opt to move files from your Android device to another Android device, a computer, or even (gasp!) an iPhone without needing any physical connection.

You’ve got a few possible paths worth considering here:

1. Quick Share (formerly Nearby Share)

Google’s own native-to-Android wireless sharing solution makes it effortless to beam files between any Android device and another Android device, a Chromebook, or a Windows computer. Just use the standard system share command within any app on Android, then select Quick Share from the list of options that pops up and follow the steps that show up to get started.

If the other device is running Android or ChromeOS, search its system settings for quick share to make sure it’s set up and ready to receive. If the other device is a Windows computer, download the official Google Quick Share Windows app to connect it.

And if the other device is running any other operating system, consider one of the next two wireless file-sharing strategies instead.

2. PairDrop

PairDrop is a free and open-source service that lets you wirelessly send files between any devices on the same network, no matter what operating system they’re running.

It works entirely on the web: All you’ve gotta do is open up the PairDrop website on both devices, then click the center area of the screen or drag and drop files to initiate a transfer.

android file transfer using pairdrop app

PairDrop brings wireless file transferring to any devices across any platforms — Android, iOS, Mac, you name it.

JR Raphael / IDG

That’s it: No downloads, no sign-ups, no hassles whatsoever. And the service’s open-source code makes it clear that no data is ever stored or even touched by a remote server as part of the process.

3. Cloud storage

If PairDrop isn’t for you and Quick Share isn’t doing the trick, the time-tested tactic of embracing a middleman can get the job done.

Simply pick any cloud storage you like — Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or any other such service. Upload the files you want to transfer into a folder within the respective app on your Android phone, then find the folder within the same app on the receiving device (or vice-versa). Or, if the sharing involves other people, share the folder with them within the same cloud storage service app.

Android file transfer: Automatic syncing with a computer

Maybe you like having certain files stored locally on your Android phone, but you also want those files to be backed up and saved on your computer. The best of both worlds, right?

Believe it or not, this is actually quite easy to pull off. Just grab an Android app called AutoSync, which is available for use with Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. It’ll let you create pairings between a local folder on your phone and a cloud-based folder — for free with a single folder pair and files smaller than 10MB or for a one-time $5 payment without any real restrictions.

Install the appropriate computer-side app for whichever service you prefer, make sure it’s set to sync with your computer’s hard drive — and there ya have it: Your Android device’s folder is now effectively part of your PC.

You can even have the folders stay constantly synced in both directions — so if you add or update a file on the computer, the same changes will appear on your phone as well.

That’s a wrap!

Congratulations: You’ve officially earned the title of Android file master. (For real — you can even type it into a document, print it out, and tape it to your desk so everyone knows.)

Next up: Make sure you understand the ins and outs of Android backups. They’re ultimately made up of files, too, after all — and pretty important ones, at that.

This article was originally published in August 2017 and most recently updated in January 2025.

The only Android file manager you need

January 16, 2025 /

File management may not be the most exciting subject surrounding smartphone ownership — but if you use your device for productivity, my goodness, is it ever worth your while to chew over.

Your phone, after all, is your on-the-go connection to the world. It’s the always-available PC of our modern computing era. And whether your work involves presentations, PDFs, documents, or images, you’re bound to find yourself fumbling around with files on your pocket-sized screen sooner or later.

With the right tool for the job, though, managing files on your phone doesn’t have to be a hassle. Android’s got some outstanding file manager options, and best of all? You almost certainly only need one of ’em — a single standout file manager to handle all of your file-wrangling requirements.

Read on and see which path makes the most sense for you.

The best all-around Android file manager for most business users

Files by Google

First and foremost, if your Android file needs are fairly simple and straightforward, Files by Google — or Google Files, for short — is the Android file manager you want.

Google Files has come a long way since its inconspicuous 2017 debut. These days, Files is a fully featured file management tool, with all the basics you’d expect and some compelling extras — all packed into a nicely designed and easy-to-use interface that’s compatible with any Android device (even if it typically comes preinstalled only on Pixels).

At its core, Google Files makes it painless and almost even pleasant to browse through your phone’s local storage and find, share, or organize any files you’ve downloaded or transferred onto the device. The app lets you look through folders or sort items by type (documents, images, videos, and so on) and optionally move sensitive materials into an encrypted and password-protected Safe Folder.

It has a spectacular search system, too, including the ability to search for text that appears within PDFs, images, and documents on your device. It even offers a convenient way to send any locally stored files directly to Google Drive with a couple quick taps — though it doesn’t, curiously enough, actually let you browse and interact with your Drive storage or connect at all to any non-Google cloud services. If that sort of more robust all-in-one control center for handling both local and remote storage is what you’re after, the Android file manager in the next section will be more suitable for you.

google files android app

Files by Google lets you browse your phone’s local storage and perform a variety of actions on folders and files.

JR Raphael / IDG

Google Files can open and now also create compressed archives, too, and it even has a handy built-in option for scanning physical documents on demand and saving ’em as neatly cropped PDF files.

Perhaps most helpful of all is Files’ integrated system for freeing up storage on your phone: Just tap the app’s three-line menu icon, in the upper-right corner, and select “Clean” to see an ever-evolving set of intelligent suggestions for superfluous files you can safely delete. Files will also show you which apps you haven’t opened in a while and make it especially easy to uninstall ’em right then and there.

All in all, Google Files is a well-rounded and intuitive file manager that handles all the file management tasks most business users will need on a phone. It’s a significant upgrade from the default file managers that come preinstalled on most non-Pixel Android devices, and if you don’t have any special requirements or advanced demands, it’s almost certainly the app for you.

Google Files is free.

The best advanced Android file manager

Solid Explorer File Manager

For anyone who needs a little more mobile file management oomph, Solid Explorer is the way to go.

Solid Explorer has all the same file manipulation basics as Google’s Files app but adds in advanced options like the ability to encrypt files and even create password-protected ZIP collections. It’s also able to integrate with a wide variety of internet-based storage services — including Google Drive, along with Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, and your own private servers — and then serve as a streamlined interface for managing all of your stuff and transferring data between different locations.

solid explorer android app

Solid Explorer is overflowing with advanced options for manipulating files and working with cloud storage.

JR Raphael / IDG

Solid Explorer has a clever two-panel interface for fuss-free dragging and dropping between locations, too — be they two local folders or a combination of local and cloud-based folders from any connected service. All you have to do is flip your phone sideways or open the app on a wide-screen tablet or foldable device for that setup to appear.

landscape mode in solid explorer android app

Solid Explorer’s smart two-panel interface allows you to view two folders together and drag and drop files between them.

JR Raphael / IDG

From variable-based batch renaming to folder bookmarking and even support for casting content to a TV or other Google-Cast-compatible display, Solid Explorer is just jam-packed with useful stuff — and yet it manages to remain reasonably simple and easy to use. (It also works exceptionally well on a Chromebook, and once you’ve bought it for your phone, you can install it onto any ChromeOS device without having to pay again.) The app’s advanced elements won’t be necessary for most people, but if your on-the-go work requires such next-level file management functions, Solid Explorer is the path to pursue.

Solid Explorer costs $3 after a free 14-day trial.

Beyond Android file managers

Important as they are, of course, Android file managers themselves are just one piece of the puzzle.

Google’s mobile operating system has some powerful native systems for beaming files between different devices, transferring files from your phone to a computer, and supplementing your phone’s local storage. With a few minutes of simple setup, you can even create special folders on your phone that automatically sync with matching folders in your favorite cloud storage service — and vice-versa.

Head over to my Android file management guide next to explore all the ins and outs of managing files on Android — including the easiest ways to wirelessly transfer files on the fly.

It may not be exciting, exactly, but you’d better believe it’ll make a world of difference.

This article was originally published in April 2018 and most recently updated in January 2025.

Kazakhstan’s AI-Powered Prisons: Setting a New Standard for Safety and Efficiency

January 15, 2025 /

Technology innovations have made the digital transformation of public services essential to enhancing safety, efficiency, and accountability. Kazakhstan has taken a monumental step forward in this regard by implementing a continuous video surveillance system across 78 correctional facilities nationwide. This groundbreaking initiative has set a new benchmark for prison management, significantly improving safety conditions and operational transparency.

A digital leap for safer prisons

In response to a national mandate from the President in 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs launched a comprehensive video surveillance project. The system includes over 39,500 high-definition cameras strategically installed across correctional institutions and their perimeters. These cameras are connected to advanced AI-driven analytics, providing real-time facial recognition, event detection, and license plate identification capabilities.

The results are nothing short of remarkable: since its implementation, the system has identified over 32,000 violations of detention protocols, prevented 62 suicides and six escape attempts, and de-escalated 27 potentially violent conflicts. It has also reduced corruption and abuse, fostering humane treatment of inmates and improving the behavior of staff. For the first half of 2024, no cases of torture by staff were reported, a testament to the system’s effectiveness.

Innovation meets human-centered design

Kazakhstan’s video surveillance initiative goes beyond mere technological deployment. It represents a harmonious blend of innovation, process improvement, and personnel training. Prison staff have been equipped with the tools and knowledge to harness the system’s full potential, enabling proactive incident management and fostering a culture of accountability.

The initiative also supports the broader goal of rehabilitation. By improving the physical, psychological, and social conditions within prisons, the system aligns with global trends emphasizing inmate welfare and reintegration into society.

Overcoming challenges with strategic vision

Before the project, sporadic and poorly maintained surveillance systems plagued correctional facilities, resulting in inconsistent monitoring and inadequate evidence for investigations. Kazakhstan addressed these challenges by deploying a centralized, secure infrastructure that ensures uninterrupted video transmission to a Situation Center under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

This hub manages real-time monitoring and analytics while safeguarding data integrity and privacy. The adoption of a fiber-optic private network further enhances reliability and security, creating a scalable framework for future innovations.

Charting the road ahead

Kazakhstan’s video surveillance initiative is just the beginning. Plans are underway to integrate more advanced algorithms for object and event recognition and to connect the system with other IT infrastructures, such as access control solutions. These advancements will further strengthen the nation’s ability to maintain order, prevent misconduct, and foster trust in correctional institutions.

The nation’s achievement offers valuable lessons for countries aiming to modernize their correctional facilities. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, combining it with strategic governance, and emphasizing human-centered implementation, Kazakhstan has set a precedent for others to follow.

For a deeper dive into the strategies, implementation, and impact of this project, download the full report. Explore how Kazakhstan is redefining correctional facility management through innovation and strategic foresight.

Discover the full story behind Kazakhstan’s transformative initiative. Learn more about the strategies, technologies, and future opportunities in this in-depth white paper: Global Trends in the Digital Transformation of Correctional Facilities: The Value of Video Surveillance.

Microsoft creates new internal unit for AI development

January 15, 2025 /

Microsoft is creating a new engineering group focused on artificial intelligence: Core AI — Platform and Tools. The group combines the company’s Developer Division with the AI Platforms work teams and some employees who previously reported to Microsoft’s CTO. According to The Verge, the group will be led by Jay Parikh, the former CTO at Meta and who joined Microsoft in October 2024.

Core AI — Platform and Tools will focus on building an AI platform and tools for both Microsoft’s own use and for the company’s customers. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote in a blog post that AI will require a record-breaking pace of development, which means Microsoft needs an AI-focused application stack to build AI apps and tools in the future.

“In this world, Azure must become the infrastructure for AI, while we build our AI platform and developer tools — spanning Azure AI Foundry, GitHub, and VS Code — on top of it,” Nadella said. “In other words, our AI platform and tools will work together to create agents, and these agents will work together to transform every category of SaaS application, and to build custom applications powered by software (i.e. ‘service as software’).”

The death of DEI in tech

January 15, 2025 /

Save me from rich, white men who insist they and their kind are being discriminated against. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, majority owner (not the founder) of SpaceX, Tesla, and numerous other leading companies, insists that “DEI [Diversity, equity, and inclusion] is just another word for racism.” He screams, “DEI must DIE. The point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination.” 

Really? I’m an older, relatively well-off, straight white man, and I know darn well that I owe a lot of my success to the fact that, except for my age, everything in the US economy has been set up to benefit me. 

In baseball terms, I started the game on first base. Black men have to get a hit to get on base. Black women step to home plate for their at-bat with two strikes against them. 

Musk and his ilk? He grew up with a millionaire, emerald-mine-owning father in South Africa and started on third base.

It used to be worse in this country. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, while the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 laid the groundwork for equal employment opportunities and non-discrimination in the workplace.

The laws were one thing. Making it a workplace reality was another. 

Over the next few decades, dedicated diversity professionals began emerging within organizations, often holding titles like Chief Diversity Officer. As businesses became more diverse, companies also started recognizing that diversity is good for business.

While DEI is also about basic fairness, it turns out that businesses that adopt it tend to do better than their rivals. Don’t believe me? How about Goldman Sachs — would you believe it? 

The global investment banking giant decided not to take companies public without diverse board representation in 2000. The financial powerhouse did so because evidence showed that companies with diverse boards outperformed those with all-male boards. Specifically, Goldman Sachs noted that companies with at least one woman on their board performed significantly better in their IPOs than those without women. Since then, the company has increased its minimum number of women board members to two. The company has also continued to support black women business owners for solid business reasons, not warm fuzzy feelings. 

This is nothing new. In 2012, the global management company McKinsey found that US companies with diverse boards had a 95% higher return on equity. 

Get the picture? DEI helps businesses do well, and the results are right there in the balance sheets.

Facts, even accounting facts, count for little as American technology leaders bow to Donald Trump. For some, like Musk and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, it’s all about rising to power on the right-wing wave. For others, it’s simply about preserving their billions. Preserving the gains of blacks, gays, older workers — whoever — is not on their priority list.

So, Amazon has halted some of its DEI programs, Meta is killing them, and Microsoft has quietly shuttered its DEI efforts. While this trend has become more obvious since Donald J. Trump won the 2024 election, it’s been coming for a while now. Google and Meta have both shut their doors to diverse employees since 2023.

That year, the Supreme Court’s Trump-friendly majority struck down affirmative action in college admissions. That decision prompted Republican activists and some state attorneys general to target corporate DEI initiatives as discriminatory. Given a choice between fighting a political battle and quietly shutting down their diversity efforts, all too many businesses have folded their DEI tents.

Others, such as Meta — where Zuck is suffering from a middle-aged crisis with his gold chain, newly curled hair, and sudden weird fascination with “masculine energy” — appear to be on their way to getting rid of their existing diverse workforce. He says he wants to “move out low performers faster.” I expect the upcoming 5% cut to come mostly from people of color, older workers, and LGBTQ+ staffers. 

You get the picture.

What it all comes down to is that if you’re not a straight white guy, the job market is going to become a lot harder for you. As for companies? They’ll suffer as well. I fear, though, that we’re stuck with this trend until cold, hard financial facts convince corporate leadership that right-wing politics leads to poor business decisions. 

What Nokia was thinking when Apple introduced iPhone in 2007

January 15, 2025 /

The whole world was watching when legendary Apple CEO Steve Jobs launched the iconic iPhone in 2007. Mobile was the future. Apple knew it (and rebranded itself to reflect it). And Nokia had a fight on its hands. So, what did Nokia think about the iPhone launch? 

Now we know.

Nokia, at one time the world’s leading mobile phone company, has made a huge archive of corporate assets available through a website curated by Finland’s Aalto University, the Nokia Design Archive. The fascinating collection provides deep insight into how the company operated; in particular, a 2007 Nokia Confidential report caught my eye, as it captures what the company thought when Apple introduced iPhone in 2007.

Much of the document focuses on price — Nokia believed the cost of the iPhone would put consumers off. 

The company was also less convinced about Apple’s touch interface; Nokia execs thought consumers would want to stick with those dinky little QWERTY keyboards everybody used at that time. But in the end, cost and keyboard didn’t form the competitive moat Nokia anticipated, because the iPhone was all about the user experience, and the report shows Nokia executives were concerned.

You and your UI

“User interface has been a big strength for Nokia,” the post-iPhone introduction report authors wrote, warning that at that time consumers were falling out of love with the UI Nokia provided. “Urgent action needed to prevent further erosion of this position,” they said.  

Apple’s new UI “may change the standards of the superior user experience for the whole market,” Nokia executives explained, noting it had been called “visually stunning and incredibly responsive.” Nokia also saw that Apple had protected its product with more than 200 patents, and once again argued that “UI may be the biggest threat that iPhone presents.

“Nokia needs a chief UI architect to re-energize Nokia’s IO innovations across platforms and businesses,” they wrote.

Apple’s product also introduced an innovative user interface built around the company’s powerful OS X system, something which integrated seamlessly with PC, Mac and the Internet, the executives noted.

Be cool, like Apple 

Apple’s cool factor was seen as another challenge. And the fact Apple had delivered a full-fledged internet experience in its phone was seen as an even bigger threat. The company confessed that its own high-end N-series devices, including the brand-new N800 it introduced just before iPhone in 2007, were challenged in comparison. 

Nokia’s executives delivered a strong and, in the end, accurate set of predictions about how iPhone would affect the wider smartphone industry at that time:

  • “A price war may emerge by Motorola trying to push their new models.” It did. Apple did not lose — and didn’t shift prices much, either.
  • “iPhone will also hurt Sony Ericsson’s momentum and coherent music strategy.” It did just that. iTunes was the dominant music service.
  • “N-Series and SEMC Walkman probably need to clearly undercut iPhone pricing to succeed in the market.” They tried, but consumers were not prepared to compromise on user experiences, and the integration with the Mac added a front that no mobile incumbent was able to match — certainly not Microsoft.
  • “Expect RIM and Palm to suffer – their stock prices have been most badly beaten.” Apple ate their lunch.
  • “All the high-end devices attract the enterprise segment — expect that also for iPhone.” Arguably, iPhone and iPad are what have led to Apple’s huge resurgence in the enterprise. Almost every company worldwide now users Apple products.
  • Nokia introduced its own iTunes competitor, Ovi a few months later, but this never really challenged iTunes.

The fascinating document confirms that Nokia understood some of what was coming when Jobs introduced Apple’s mobile phone. It could see that the iPhone had the potential to stimulate demand for high-end devices, which it did and still does. iPhones became the de facto high-end market leader.

When Android stole the market

Even today, Apple scoops up a vast share of industry profits as its customers continue to invest in the best model iPhone they can afford. They do this because they continue to enjoy the user experience Apple provides.

But even back in 2007, Nokia saw that the exclusive US iPhone distribution relationship Apple reached with Cingular (later acquired by AT&T) was both a strength and a weakness. To compete, the industry was famously forced to rally round Google’s Android, an operating system Steve Jobs once vowed to destroy. 

However, the embrace of Android proved ill-judged. It led the market into homogeneity, eternal price wars, and enabled Google, rather than the mobile device makers, to take the lion’s share of any services-related income. Apple did this too, of course — but Apple also took the risk of making and selling the hardware, software, and services used. Now, it sells one in every four smartphones, and perhaps almost one in five of those sold is now made in India. 

The problem for Nokia was that it didn’t make Android, either. Arguably, it failed to find a response in user interfaces and (looking through the online archive) seemed limited in its outlook when it came to designing operating systems to compete with Apple’s own. But I guess execs from around that time can console themselves in thinking that they accurately read the room.

It’s a fascinating archive (and the Nokia research document about iPod is also interesting). 

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, Mastodon, and MeWe. 

Microsoft adds ‘pay-as-you-go’ access for AI agents with M365 Copilot Chat

January 15, 2025 /

Microsoft has added a “pay-as-you-go” option to access AI agents alongside its free M365 Copilot Chat plan. 

M365 Copilot Chat is a chat interface powered by OpenAI’s GPT4o that serves up responses based on web data (rather than information held in the Microsoft Graph, as per the paid M365 Copilot subscription). It also includes features such as Copilot Pages and image generation, as well as data protection and IT admin controls at no cost to users. 

Businesses using M365 Copilot Chat can also now deploy Microsoft’s Copilot AI agents, the company announced Wednesday, with metered pricing based on the number of times agents are used.

As with many software vendors, Microsoft began a major push around its M365 Copilot agents towards the end of 2024. These range from chatbots that can answer questions about specific documents to autonomous software agents that can complete more complex tasks such as client onboarding or customer support. 

M365 Copilot Chat provides an “on-ramp” for business to access Copilot and AI agents, Microsoft said.

Microsoft 365 Copilot chat tiers

Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat now has a “pay-as-you-go” option that allows access to agents.

MIcrosoft

“M365 Copilot Chat reflects a broader change in the world of generative AI happening in 2025: The rise of agents to complement personal AI assistants like Copilot,” said J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst on Forrester’s Future of Work team.

The plan lacks many of the core features available in the main M365 Copilot subscription service — which costs $30 per user a month — notably the AI personal assistant embedded in apps such as Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel. Microsoft has struggled to convince large numbers of customers to adopt its M365 Copilot broadly since the service launched in November 2023. 

Microsoft said it expects customers will have “a mix of Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot — our best-in-class offering — to drive AI transformation at scale.”

“On the one hand, having access to a basic LLM is becoming table stakes, so it makes sense for Microsoft to offer a secure and managed Copilot Chat as part of the broader Microsoft 365 offering,” said Gownder. “On the other hand, this Copilot Chat can act as a conduit to agents, which will soon proliferate throughout enterprises.”

M365 Copilot Chat agent usage is measured in “message” credits. These are charged either with a pay-as-you-go model at 1 cent per message, or with pre-paid message bundles priced at $200 for 25,000 messages, Microsoft said in a blog post.

Microsoft sets out four types of agent “answers,” or responses, that each consume a different number of message credits. For example, “classic” answers, used for pre-written responses that are manually authored when an agent is created, cost 1 message, while autonomous agent responses cost 25 messages.

Consumption-based licensing provides a low-cost alternative for customers that want to get started with Copilot services grounded in M365 content, said Larry Cannell, research director at Gartner’s Technical Professionals Digital Workplace service. 

“CIOs often prefer it to flat-based licensing of new products because they can better align value delivered to the cost of the product,” he said. “It is much easier to sell a solution based on demonstrated use rather than expected demand.”

5 ways to avoid AI in Windows — and on the web

January 15, 2025 /

Generative AI (genAI) is seemingly everywhere these days — and Windows is certainly no exception.

The OS itself now has Copilot on its taskbar, and new PCs ship with a dedicated Copilot AI key on their keyboards. Microsoft is adding more and more genAI features as time goes by and it’s increasingly hard to search the web without getting a genAI answer from Google and other search engines.

I’ve heard from people who love the technology, and I’ve heard from people who can’t stand it. Me, I’m right here in the middle: I keep experimenting with it, but articles like this one are 100% written by a real-life human. Personally, I want to see genAI features when I choose — certainly not all the time, everywhere on my computer.

Plain and simple, you might occasionally use genAI tools to get work done, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to be bombarded with it everywhere. That’s what these tips are all about: easy ways to eliminate the AI elements integrated throughout Windows and Chrome or whatever other web browser you’re using. It’s your computer, your workday, and your online experience.

Time to take back control.

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The Windows AI asterisk

First, a quick bit of pertinent perspective: Despite all the hype, most Windows AI features aren’t actually doing anything in the background. They usually don’t do anything at all, in fact, until you click a button to summon them.

For example, the Microsoft Paint app has a built-in AI image generator tool. It does nothing whatsoever unless you open Paint and click the “Image Creator” button on the toolbar. Then, it will generate an image for you.

If you don’t want to use that image feature, just don’t click that button. If you don’t want to see the button, don’t launch Microsoft Paint. Most genAI features in Windows are exactly like that — so far.

But there are some AI features that are getting awfully insistent. So let’s get out the proverbial weedwhacker and trim them back. 

Windows AI elimination step #1: Start with Google

Most genAI features lay low unless you go looking for them; Google’s AI answers are an in-your-face exception. You’ll often get answers written by Google’s Gemini AI just when searching Google, whether you want them or not.

There are many ways to avoid AI answers on Google. Here’s a quick list:

  • After searching for something on Google, click the “Web” category. You’ll only see web links.
  • Add the text -ai to any search to hide AI answers.
  • Install the simple “Hide Google AI Overviews” Chrome extension to hide AI answers. This extension should work on other Chromium-based browsers like Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi. It’s available for Firefox, too.

You can also create a custom search engine in Chrome to default to Google web searches. Here’s a guide to getting rid of Gemini with a custom search engine in Chrome — on both computers running Google Chrome and Android phones.

Windows AI elimination step #2: Hide Copilot

Microsoft’s Copilot AI chatbot app now comes pinned to the taskbar by default in both Windows 10 and Windows 11. It’s just one click away.

If you don’t want it down there, getting rid of it is easy — and the latest version of Copilot makes it even easier: Just right-click the Copilot taskbar icon and select “Unpin from taskbar.” That’s it.

Copilot doesn’t actually do anything until you open it and ask it a question, so it won’t do anything on your PC as long as you leave it closed. You can also opt to completely uninstall it, though, if you like: Just open the Start menu, search for “Copilot,” then right-click the “Copilot” shortcut and select “Uninstall.”

Unpin Copilot
You can now unpin Copilot like any other app — with just a right-click.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows AI elimination step #3: Reclaim the Copilot key

All on-screen implementations aside, many new laptops now come with an actual physical Copilot key on their keyboards. That key will launch Microsoft’s AI chatbot — and it’s easy to accidentally tap. But you can stop it.

To do so, open the Settings app on your Windows 11 PC, select “Personalization,” and then choose “Text input.” Scroll down to the “Customize Copilot key on keyboard” option. You can set it to “Search” to use it as a search key instead, similar to what’s present on Chromebooks.

(You can also make it launch a different app — like the ChatGPT app, for example — if you’d prefer.)

Copilot key settings
Windows lets you transform a Copilot key into a Search key in a few clicks.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows AI elimination step #4: Tackle the toolbar

If you prefer using Microsoft’s web browser, you’ll notice it has a big Copilot AI chatbot icon right on its toolbar. You can get rid of that, too.

To remove Copilot from Edge’s toolbar:

  • Click the menu button at the top-right corner of the Edge browser window and select “Settings.”
  • Click ”Copilot and sidebar” in the left pane.
  • Click the “Copilot” app under “App and notification settings.”
  • Turn off the “Show Copilot” option.
Copilot settings in Edge
You can use Edge without the Copilot icon on your browser’s toolbar.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Windows AI elimination step #5. Total Recall removal

While I’ve mentioned that most AI features on Windows don’t do anything unless you launch them, the one exception is the Windows Recall feature — which runs in the background and saves snapshots of your PC’s screen so you can search your PC usage later. Bear in mind, this is only on new “Copilot+ PCs,” and it’s disabled by default. Also: Your Recall data is never sent to Microsoft — it’s processed entirely on your PC.

At the moment (in January 2025), Recall is only available in Insider versions of Windows 11. Of course, it will almost certainly come to all Copilot+ PCs at some point this year.

You can check whether the Recall feature is active on Windows 11 by opening the Settings app, selecting “Privacy & security,” and clicking “Recall & snapshots” under Windows permissions. From here, you can turn off “Save snapshots” if you don’t want the AI-powered Recall feature capturing snapshots in the background.

Don’t see anything about “Recall & snapshots” in the Settings app? That means your Windows PC doesn’t have Recall. Most Windows PCs don’t!

Recall settings
Recall only runs in the background if you choose to enable it.

Chris Hoffman, IDG

Choose your own AI adventure

Remember: AI doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You might prefer a traditional Google search experience and a Copilot-free Windows desktop, but you might still launch the ChatGPT app now and then or use whatever AI tools your workplace provides.

The choice is yours — and now, you know exactly how to make it happen.

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These top online AI courses can help advance your career

January 15, 2025 /

Demand for generative AI (genAI) courses is surging, passing all other tech skills courses and spanning fields from data science to cybersecurity, project management, and marketing.

Coursera, in its fourth annual Job Skills Report, says demand for genAI-trained employees has spiked by 866% over the past year leading to strong interest in online learning. Over the past two years, 12.5 million people have enrolled in Coursera’s AI content, according to Quentin McAndrew, global academic strategist at Coursera.

Mastering AI skills is essential to stay competitive now, McAndrew said, and students are shifting from understanding genAI to applying it in their roles to save time, work smarter, and deliver “measurable impact.”

“AI and GenAI have become the most in-demand skills across all industries,” she said. “AI skills now appear in almost every job posting, which unlocks opportunities for higher wages and career growth for job seekers.”

“Demand for genAI learning has exceeded that of any skill we’ve ever seen on Coursera, and learners are increasingly opting for role-focused content to prepare for specific jobs,” said Marni Stein, Coursera’s chief content officer.

The rush for online learning about genAI isn’t restricted to Coursera. Other online learning hubs, including Udemy, O’Reilly and Workera, are seeing much the same thing.

At Coursera, the top genAI courses in 2024 were:

  1. Google AI Essentials (Google)
  2. Generative AI for Everyone (DeepLearning.AI) 
  3. Introduction to Generative AI (Google Cloud) 
  4. Generative AI with Large Language Models (Amazon Web Services; DeepLearning.AI) 
  5. Generative AI: Introduction and Applications (IBM)
  6. Generative AI for Executives and Business Leaders – Part 1 (IBM)
  7. Introduction to Generative AI for Software Development (DeepLearning.AI)
  8. Microsoft 365 Copilot: Personal Productivity for All (Vanderbilt University)
  9. Accelerate Your Learning with ChatGPT (Deep Teaching Solutions) 

Greg Brown, CEO of online learning platform Udemy, echoed what Coursera officials have seen. “As genAI skills become the new standard for workplace tech proficiency, we are seeing a surge in demand for skills like ChatGPT and leadership for change management,” he said.

Udemy research found that while nearly 90% of employees see leadership as key to their company’s genAI transformation, only 48% feel confident their top execs are prepared to lead the initiatives.

“AI proficiency is no longer novel or ‘nice-to-have,’” Brown said. “It is mission-critical for organizations to future-proof their workforce and for professionals to further develop their careers.”

On Udemy’s platform, students are choosing to upskill with AI tools such as ChatGPT, MidJourney, and DALL-E. The company’s Top 100 Surging Workplace Learning Skills list ranked ChatGPT and generative AI as the second fastest-growing skill, with AI in the sixth spot.

Udemy said its top business courses over the past 90 days include:

  1. Machine Learning A-Z: AI, Python & R + ChatGPT Prize [2025]
  2. Artificial Intelligence A-Z 2025: Build 7 AI + LLM & ChatGPT
  3. ChatGPT: Complete ChatGPT Course For Work 2025 (Ethically)!
  4. How to use ChatGPT and Generative AI to help create content
  5. LLM Engineering: Master AI, Large Language Models & Agents
  6. Artificial Intelligence & ChatGPT for Cyber Security 2025

Learning about genAI for productivity at Udemy has surged 859% from a year ago, with more than four million enrollments. Numerous AI certification courses, including Microsoft Azure AI Engineer Associate and Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals, have also grown significantly — up 311% and 197%, respectively.

“Forward-thinking companies understand the power of genAI,” Brown said. “Integrating genAI across the workforce is like migrating your infrastructure to the cloud,.”

According to a new study by tech learning platform O’Reilly, AI technologies are driving the most significant shifts in technology education. Interest in almost all of the top skills is up from 2023 to 2024: Prompt Engineering grew 456%; AI Principles grew 386%; Generative AI grew 289%; Natural Language Processing grew 39%; AI grew 190%; and Machine Learning grew 9.2%.

Interestingly enough, among the top topics the most significant decline was for GPT itself, which dropped by 13%. “Not a huge decline but certainly a significant one,” said Mike Loukides, vice president of emerging technology content at O’Reilly.

That loss of interest in some ways dovetails with what research firm Gartner said last August — that genAI was slipping into the “trough of disillusionment.”

Loukides said developers are now prioritizing foundational AI knowledge over platform-specific skills to better navigate across various AI models such as Claude, Google’s Gemini, and Llama.

“This year’s report also highlights the rapid rise of critical AI-related skills tied to LangChain and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which have rapidly gained prominence and are now comparable in usage to established AI libraries like PyTorch and Keras,” he said. “These advancements empower developers to build more sophisticated applications on top of AI models, marking the next frontier in AI development.”

The biggest AI usage increases were in prompt engineering (up 456%), AI principles (up 386%), and genAI (up 289%). Notably, GitHub Copilot content saw a 471% surge, highlighting developers’ growing interest in productivity-enhancing tools, according to the O’Reilly report.

The next wave of AI development will be building agents — software that can plan and execute complex actions. “This year marks a pivotal transition in technology, with AI evolving from generative capabilities to a transformative force reshaping how developers approach their craft,” Loukides said.

Loukides said interest in learning programming languages appears to be waning, with Rust being a notable exception. If that’s happening because users expect AI to handle language details, that could be “a career mistake,” he said.

But Kian Katanforoosh, CEO Workera, an AI-driven talent management and skills assessment provider, said people aren’t less interested in learning programming languages — Python recently surpassed JavaScript as the most popular language. Instead, there’s been a decline in learning the specific syntax details of these languages, he said.

“What most people should focus on is understanding what a programming language enables them to do and how it works at a high level, rather than memorizing syntax…,” Katanforoosh said. “The mindset of programming remains crucial — it fosters problem-solving skills that are widely applicable.”

It’s also important, he added, to recognize the different tiers of AI learners:

  1. AI-aware individuals, who want to understand AI concepts and their implications.
  2. AI practitioners, who are focused on leveraging AI technologies to build applications.
  3. AI builders, who develop the models or infrastructure that power AI.

“Each group is learning distinct skills, and tailoring education to these tiers could unlock even greater potential for AI adoption and innovation,” Katanforoosh said.

Along those lines, Coursera’s fourth annual Job Skills Report, based on insights from five million enterprise learners and more than 7,000 institutional customers, found the key skills organizations and individuals are prioritizing for 2025. They included:

  1. GenAI — using AI to generate text, images, and more
  2. Artificial neural networks — building computer systems that learn like human brains do
  3. Computer vision — teaching computers to “see” and understand images
  4. PyTorch (machine learning library)— using this tool to build powerful AI applications
  5. Machine learning — teaching computers to learn from data
  6. Applied machine learning — using machine learning to solve real problems
  7. Deep learning — building advanced AI systems for complex tasks
  8. Supervised learning — training AI using labeled examples
  9. Reinforcement learning — training AI through trial and error
  10. Machine learning operations (MLOps) — managing and deploying machine learning systems effectively.

According to Coursera’s Stein, the top three fastest growing skills for 2025 are Prompt Engineering (Vanderbuilt University), ChatGPT Advanced Data Analysis (Vanderbilt University), and Preparing Data for Analysis with Microsoft Excel (Microsoft).

An eye-opening Android privacy blacklight

January 15, 2025 /

One of the most prickly misconceptions around Android is that it’s completely incompatible with privacy. If you use Android, the wonky thinking goes, you’re giving into a lifetime of unavoidable surveillance (gasp!) and the big, bad Google monster monitoring and monetizing everything you do (egads!).

Well, surprise, surprise: Like so many conversations around Google and privacy, this line of thinking is oversimplified and shockingly short on nuance. (Déjà vu, anyone?) The reality, unless you live inside Apple’s marketing department, is that (a) Android can be as private as you like — and (b) it’s up to you to make educated decisions about what kinds of basic data-sharing you’re okay with and what kinds of compromises you’re willing to make.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, the info Google and also third-party app developers collect across Android is completely impersonal and of little to no meaningful consequence — other than potentially showing you more relevant ads in different places, programmatically and based on your online activity. But it’s absolutely possible to access and adjust all of that activity and stop any of it from happening entirely, if you’re so inclined.

I recently put together an extensive Android privacy guide that goes through every last area of Android privacy and all the most advanced adjustments — along with what exactly you’ll sacrifice by making any such changes. While most of the knowledge there revolves around stuff at the operating system level, the guide also includes one third-party tool that’s especially interesting for anyone eager to gain a complete understanding of what types of data apps on your device might be monitoring.

It’s interesting enough that I thought it warranted an extra spotlight — especially since my privacy guide hit in the midst of the December holidays, when lots of us were hibernating or otherwise tuned out.

Let me show you a little more about this standout Android privacy addition and why it might be worth your while to check out.

[Keep the enlightenment coming with my Android Notification Power-Pack — six powerful enhancements for any Android device — next.]

The ins and outs of Android app tracking

First things first, an important reality to be aware of: In addition to all the higher-profile ways info about your activity can be accessed across Android, any apps you install are able to track a certain amount of data on their own, independently — based on the permissions you give ’em.

By and large, this is pretty innocuous stuff. Most apps monitor certain types of activity within their own environments so their developers can look at and improve performance across a variety of Android device types and also spot potential bugs before they turn into serious problems. Others follow common online ad patterns and use broad data on behaviors to influence what ads you’re shown, anonymously, in order to pay the bills and offer you services at little to no ongoing cost.

But still, knowledge is power — and even if it’s typically not nefarious, it’s entirely advisable to make yourself aware of what’s happening on your device and then make your own active decisions about what you are — or aren’t — okay with.

And while Android itself doesn’t have a native mechanism for analyzing this specific area, you can find an impressively effective blacklight into app-tracking activity in an unlikely place.

I won’t keep you waiting: It’s the DuckDuckGo Android web browser. While DuckDuckGo may be known primarily as a search service and Chrome alternative, its Android app has a handy tool for seeing exactly what sorts of tracking activity is happening behind the scenes with apps on your device — and, if you wish, for blocking any or all of that activity from continuing.

You don’t necessarily have to use DuckDuckGo as your Android search provider or default browser to take advantage of the option, either. 

In fact, all you need is about 30 seconds of simple setup — then all the info imaginable will be at your fingertips, along with a helpful set of simple controls.

30 seconds to Android app-tracking insights

All right — ready? First, go install DuckDuckGo from the Play Store, then open ‘er up and wade your way through its slightly irksome welcome sequences. When DuckDuckGo prompts you to set it as your default system browser, remember: You don’t have to do that. Just hit “Cancel” on that pop-up if you want to skip over that suggestion and stick with whatever standard browser you’re already using.

Then, once you’re looking at the main DuckDuckGo home screen, tap the three-dot menu icon in the app’s upper-right corner and select “Settings” followed by “App Tracking Protection.”

Tap “Continue” a couple times, then tap the big blue “Enable App Tracking Protection” button and tap “OK” on the confirmation box that pops up.

At that point, you can go about using your phone normally — and you can just periodically peek in at your notifications to see how much tracker-like activity DuckDuckGo is detecting across all of your installed apps.

Android privacy: App tracking — DuckDuckGo notification
DuckDuckGo’s app tracking notification shows you how much activity it’s blocking at any given moment.

JR Raphael, IDG

Tap that alert — or make your way manually back into that same “App Tracking Protection” area of the DuckDuckGo settings — and you’ll see a detailed breakdown of exactly what types of invisible tracking activity DuckDuckGo is both sensing and blocking across your device.

Android privacy: App tracking
You can see detailed info on exactly what data different apps are collecting within DuckDuckGo’s “App Tracking Protection” area.

JR Raphael, IDG

As you can see, there’s quite a bit going on there! But as with most things in the modern tech universe, it’s all about the context. And, unfortunately, that’s the one area where DuckDuckGo’s app-tracking blacklight is lacking.

When you really dig in and examine what most of the apps in DuckDuckGo’s tracking list are doing, the vast majority of the activity will almost certainly come down to the two core areas we mentioned a moment ago — first, performance monitoring and bug detection, and second, more effective advertising based on an anonymized view of your activity and alleged interests. (As always, if you’re gonna see ads somewhere, you’re unavoidably gonna see ’em no matter what. The only question is if the ads might be more aligned with things you’re actually interested in or just random and irrelevant.)

Alarming as it may be at a quick ‘n’ casual glance, in other words, most of the activity you’ll see listed is no actual cause for concern. And by blocking it, it’s entirely possible you’ll cause certain areas of apps to stop working the way they should — or, at the very least, make it more difficult for their developers to keep an eye on performance and keep things running smoothly, since DuckDuckGo may well block mechanisms that are crucial or in some way important to an app’s overall operation.

But, hey, it’s your phone. And it’s your right to understand what’s happening behind the scenes and take control of it, if you so desire.

On that note, that same section of the DuckDuckGo settings lets you selectively turn off tracking and blocking on an app-by-app basis — so even if you do decide to leave it running in general, you can disable it for specific apps where you see strangeness or for whatever reason don’t want to block what’s happening. After a few days, you may well decide this knowledge is more nuisance than anything for you and not worth keeping active. If so, all you’ve gotta do is uninstall DuckDuckGo from your phone — or just flip the switch within that “App Tracking Protection” area of the app’s settings to disable it.

But now you know how to find all that knowledge and decide for yourself — whether that ends up being a short-lived glimpse into the inner-workings of your device or an ongoing blocking of any and all app “tracking.”

The power is in your hands. And just like with every other Android privacy consideration, it’s up to you to decide what to do with it.

Don’t stop there: Snag my free Android Notification Power-Pack next to take total control over how your apps alert you — in ways you never even knew were possible.