A Surface Duo with Android | Image Courtesy: Microsoft
Microsoft is adding more entries to Android phone’s menu that appears when you select or hold texts. Previously, Microsoft added “Search in Edge” and “Bing Search” to the Android menu, and a recent update to the Microsoft 365 app added the “Microsoft 365 Note” option, which allegedly hides important options like ‘copy’ in the extended menu.
Android developers can add new entries to the mini menu or menu of Android phones that some users may like and others may call bloat. If you have installed three famous Microsoft apps – Bing Chat, Edge and Microsoft 365 – and select texts in apps like Gmail, you get up to three additional options – Search in Edge, Bing Search, and Microsoft 365 Note.
“Search in Edge” and “Bing Search” have been around for over a year now, but “Microsoft 365 Note” is the new option added to Android phones. One of our readers told us that the Microsoft 365 update on Android hides important options like “Copy” in the extended menu on their Samsung phone.
An example of a Microsoft 365 button in the Android menu | Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest.com
“Microsoft seems to be aggressively promoting its Search in Edge or Microsoft 365 note. Strangely, I didn’t even realize how it got integrated into my Gmail,” a user told me over email.
“What’s even more frustrating is that the usual ‘copy’ button seems to have been replaced. Typically, you’d long-click on a text on a phone to copy it. Now, that feature has been replaced with Microsoft’s promotional tool. Microsoft might be overreaching and potentially tarnishing their reputation in the process,” the frustrated user added.
Users’ major frustrations revolve around the ‘copy’ function. A commonly used feature, Android users are used to long-clicking on text to copy it. However, recent updates have hidden this feature with Microsoft’s tool.
In our tests, we observed a similar behaviour. The new buttons hide other important features like Copy or Select in the menu, at least on Samsung phones. If you select a text and click “Microsoft 365 Note”, it will open the “Notes” section of the Microsoft 365 app with the selected text already there.
It’s not possible to manually change the order of the options in the menu, but if you go to the extended menu and click the ‘copy’ button instead of Microsoft 365 Note, your Android menu may automatically adapt to the behaviour, and the ‘copy’ button will surface instead.
Microsoft has been heavily pushing its Bing and Edge services on its own and rival platforms. For example, a recent Windows 11 pop-up that promotes Bing to Google Chrome users disrupted gaming, causing public outrage. Microsoft pulled the ad to investigate the unexpected behaviour.
