In what might be a precursor of things to come, Microsoft has announced plans to kill off its Cortana voice assistant on both iOS and Android on January 31st, 2020. According to a new article on its official website, Microsoft said that the Cortana mobile app will no longer be supported beyond that date even for folks who already have it on their devices.
Microsoft has since confirmed to The Verge that the app will no longer be available on the App Store in India , the UK, Australia, Germany, Mexico, China, Spain and Canada from January 31, 2020. While the announcement raises serious
questions about the future of Cortana, Microsoft sought to dismiss all such concerns in a statement issued to the blog over the weekend, saying:
Cortana is an integral part of our
broader vision to bring the power of
conversational computing and productivity to all our platforms and devices. To make Cortana as helpful as possible, we’re integrating Cortana deeper into your Microsoft 365 productivity apps, and part of this evolution involves ending support for the Cortana mobile app on Android and iOS.
The latest decision is not massively surprising, given that Cortana has continued to lag behind all three of its nearest competitors – Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and the Google Assistant. However, as reported by The Verge, the software is still an integral part of a number of peripherals, including the company’s own Headphones, so it will be interesting to see what this means for those devices going forward.
Image credit:Phoneworld.com.pk
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