Microsoft ends Copilot support on all smart TVs during 2026

Microsoft will end Copilot support on all smart TVs during 2026, according to an on-screen notification seen by Windows Central on an LG webOS television. The notice gives no final shutdown date and says any specific date remains “subject to Microsoft’s timeline.”

The report does not rest on a formal announcement from Microsoft, LG, or Samsung. It comes from a notification that appeared on the webOS-powered LG television used by Windows Central reporter Zac Bowden.

An LG television notification told Bowden: “Microsoft has recently decided to end support for Copilot functionality on all TVs, including the Copilot-enabled feature available on our LG TVs.” The notice says the feature is no longer available, may stop functioning shortly, and is “scheduled for discontinuation during 2026.”

What changes for television users?

For television users, the immediate consequence is the loss of an assistant that LG and Samsung had promoted as part of the smart-TV experience. The notification promises neither a replacement function nor a fixed date when existing installations will stop responding. In short, the service has a departure year but no posted countdown.

For televisions sold with Copilot access as a selling point, the feature now behaves like a subscription service rather than a permanent television function. The hardware stays, while Microsoft controls whether the software works. That is the commercial cost of bundling a third-party service into a physical product.

At CES 2025, LG and Samsung announced that their latest smart TVs would include access to Copilot. Windows Central characterized the reversal as arriving nearly two years after those announcements. The original proposition paired television hardware with a conversational software layer; the ending treats that layer as a service Microsoft can withdraw.

What does the television rollout reveal?

Last December, LG faced an online backlash after a webOS update added an unremovable Microsoft Copilot shortcut to its televisions. The shortcut opened the Copilot web app in a browser, and users objected because the company had added it without their approval. LG then reversed course and allowed users to remove the shortcut.

That dispute supplies useful commercial context. Users expressed frustration online about a shortcut inserted without their approval. The deletion decision resolved the immediate interface complaint, but it did not settle the underlying question of whether television users wanted Copilot in that form.

Before the discontinuation, Copilot primarily served as a friendly AI-powered companion on Samsung and LG smart TVs. It supported three main tasks:

• Chatting with the assistant.
• Asking questions about what was currently displayed on screen.
• Obtaining recommendations for television shows and movies.

Microsoft’s broader strategy points in another direction. Earlier this year, the company introduced a new Copilot “super app” that combined chat, agents, and coding in a single interface. According to the report, the application supported Microsoft’s effort to position Copilot more as a business and productivity tool, and less as a digital companion.

The timing therefore looks less like a disagreement over television hardware and more like a change in software priorities. LG and Samsung chose the television products; Microsoft chose the service running on them.

Microsoft controls the Copilot service, and the notification shows how one software supplier can end a feature across televisions from different manufacturers. That is the sort of dependency that makes “smart” a less reassuring word in a product specification.

What can buyers expect next?

The confirmed position remains narrow: Microsoft has scheduled Copilot support for discontinuation during 2026, and the report gives no exact date. Neither LG, Samsung, nor Microsoft had issued an official announcement connected to the notification, and the notice announced no replacement assistant.

For the television makers, the task is to remove Copilot cleanly rather than leave another conspicuous shortcut behind. For Microsoft, the “super app” offers a clearer home for chat, agents, and coding than a television companion. Copilot began as a living-room feature and is set to end as a product Microsoft now organizes around work.

By the end of 2026, the decisive evidence will be whether Copilot vanishes on schedule and whether LG or Samsung replace it with another software proposition. Until Microsoft sets a firm date and the manufacturers respond, television buyers have a discontinuation window but no firm replacement timetable.