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Microsoft Shutting Down Cortana App for iOS and Android

Friday July 31, 2020 11:29 AM PDT by Juli Clover

Microsoft today announced plans to "shift toward a transformational AI-powered assistant experience" in its Microsoft 365 apps, which will involve refocusing its "areas of innovation and development."

As a result, Microsoft is ending all support for third-party Cortana skills and eliminating the Cortana apps for iOS and Android devices. Third-party Cortana skills will be deprecated on September 7, while the iOS and Android apps will stop being supported in early 2021.

Microsoft says that the Cortana Windows 10 experience, Cortana integration in Outlook mobile, and upcoming Cortana voice assistance in the Teams mobile app can be used to do things like manage calendar and email and join meetings.

Microsoft also plans to end support for the Cortana integration in the Harman Kardon Invoke speaker in January 2021. Speaker owners who used Cortana are eligible for a $50 Microsoft gift card as compensation.

Tags: Cortana, Microsoft

Top Rated Comments

farewelwilliams

63 months ago

a digital assistant that you had to launch the app manually in order to use turns out to be not very useful? who would have seen that coming?

Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)

eoblaed

63 months ago

Translation: No one was using this thing.

Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Black Magic

63 months ago

This is why I don't jump on Microsoft or Google consumer products. They more than likely will be abandoned. I posted this many years back in this forum and MS fanboys got heated.

Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ck2875

63 months ago

Microsoft today announced ('https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4575625/upcoming-changes-to-cortana') plans to "shift toward a transformational AI-powered assistant experience" in its Microsoft 365 apps,

That would be quite a shift.

Clippy enters the conversation.

"Hi, it looks like you're trying to shift toward a transformational AI-powered assistant experience."

"Would you like help?"

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Rychiar

63 months ago

who knew it existed??‍♂️ and what was it even for?. AI assistants that aren't system wide are kinda useless...

Google assistant on iOS seems to be doing fine and has to be launched manually.

does anyone use that?

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

reubs

63 months ago

I was always kind of jealous that the Microsoft AI assistant was Cortona. I wanted to feel like Master Chief telling it to remind me to get my library books.

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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