Microsoft has been scaling back its artificial intelligence (AI)-based virtual assistant, Cortana since years. Now, the company has taken yet another important step in scaling back Cortana in a way that might lead to its end. The company, via an update on its support page has announced that it will stop supporting the Cortana app on Windows later this year.
The company said that starting in late 2023, it will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app. Clarifying the move, the company said that this move will only affect the version of Cortana that is available in the Productivity Assistant on the Windows personal computer and that it will continue to offer Cortana within other products and services including Outlook and Teams.
“We are making some changes to Windows that will impact users of the Cortana app. Starting in late 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app,” Microsoft wrote in the support page.
“This change only impacts Cortana in Windows, and your productivity assistant, Cortana, will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms,” the company added.
Cortana’s nine-year-long journey
Microsoft introduced Cortana back in April 2014. The company slowly integrated its AI-capabilities within its products and services including Windows, Microsoft Teams and even Outlook. The AI-based virtual assistant was Microsoft’s answer to the likes of Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google’s Google Assistant. However, the AI assistant failed to gain popularity among users.
As a result, Microsoft started shipping Amazon Alexa along with Cortana in Windows PCs starting August 2018. Two years later in 2020, the company announced its first scaling back efforts for Cortana. In Septem 2020, the company ended support for all third-party Cortana skills. Then, in early 2021, Microsoft stopped supporting the Cortana app for mobile. This includes its Android and iOS apps. In the same year, the company ended support for Cortana service integration in the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker and its first Surface Headphones.
So, what happens to Cortana’s AI features now?
Microsoft, in its support page, said that even though it is ending support for Cortana’s Windows app, users will still be able to access its productivity features with increased AI capabilities in Windows and Edge. This primarily refers to Windows Copilot, which the company introduced at Build 2023.
For the unversed, Windows Copilot provides centralised AI assistance for customers. “Together, with Bing Chat and first- and third-party plugins, you can focus on bringing your ideas to life, completing complex projects and collaborating instead of spending energy finding, launching and working across multiple applications,” Microsoft had said while announcing the feature. Windows Copilot will be available in preview for Windows 11 in June 2023.