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- Microsoft is removing Windows 11’s “Suggested Actions,” likely due to poor performance and user frustration.
- “Suggested actions” faced problems like inconsistency and irrelevant suggestions, making it more annoying than useful
- Microsoft plans to focus on reliable, AI-powered features instead of improving “Suggested Actions”
We’ve just started 2025, but Microsoft is busy improving Windows 11this time killing the “Suggested Actions” feature.. The function was intended to make your life as a Windows 11 the user easier by recognizing details such as phone numbers or dates that you have copied and then offering (hopefully) useful and relevant action suggestions, such as allowing you to create a calendar event or call the number. However, as seen in a recent Preview Build in the Beta Channel Windows 11 Insider Programthe “Suggested Actions” feature has been disabled.
This change will likely be implemented in a future Windows 11 update soon. The latest Windows predictions that this will take three to four weeks and that we will see “Suggested Actions” completely removed from the operating system (OS) by February 2025.
The feature debuted in a Windows 11 Preview Build in 2022 and became widely available to users in 2023, so it didn’t have the longest duration. Still, I appreciate that Microsoft I tried to add something designed to help people get more out of how to use Windows 11.
Why “Suggested actions” leave Windows 11
Unfortunately, “Suggested actions” didn’t work so well. Sometimes it doesn’t show up when it’s supposed to. Even when it did, it would feel inconsistent and more annoying than helpful. Windows Latest reports that a user posted to Microsoft’s Feedback Hub, writing that “Suggested actions” failed to copy a phone number after supposedly suggesting that it could.
On the other hand, another user said that “Suggested actions” appear when working with dates in Excel and they didn’t need help because they were already in an approved app to use this information. It seems a combination of repeated instances of the function simply not working as expected (and, in fact, in the opposite way sometimes), and Windows 11 users who are not so enthusiastic about it, were the reasons to get the chop.
Windows Latest suggests that Microsoft was trying to improve “Suggested Actions” with the help of AIbut it seems that the company instead decided to cut it completely. Therefore, it seems that “Suggested actions” are directed to the Microsoft Graveyardwhile Microsoft is moving forward with features that are explicitly powered by AI and hopefully more reliable and actually feel smarter (or at least that’s how they’re presented).
Personally, I’ve never felt any huge benefit from this feature, and I imagine this will be a similar experience to many of you, probably not missing much once it’s gone for good. I appreciate that Microsoft is redirecting its efforts to its AI-powered assistant features, but the jury is still very much out on those as well. So far, it seems that most people (myself included), have not yet felt a substantial benefit from AI when it comes to how we engage with Windows 11.
