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Cortana on an iPhone.
Microsoft’s Cortana app for iOS and Android will be shutting down soon, the company said on a support page. This effectively puts a nail in the coffin of Cortana for mainstream use cases, at least when it comes to direct competition with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
Here’s what the ad says:
We will be ending support for the Cortana app on Android and iOS soon, as Cortana continues to evolve as a productivity assistant.
As of March 31, 2021, Cortana content you’ve created, like reminders and lists, will no longer work in the Cortana mobile app, but will still be accessible through Cortana in Windows. Plus, Cortana reminders, lists, and tasks automatically sync with the Microsoft To Do app, which you can download to your phone for free.
After March 31, 2021, the Cortana mobile app on your phone will no longer be supported.
It is not a surprise. Microsoft had already started cheapening Cortana on mobile in some markets, and the writing seemed to be on the wall when the company announced that many of Cortana’s consumer-focused skills would take the ax about a year ago.
Third-party skills support has ended, and the industry’s first and only smart speaker to support Cortana ended Microsoft’s Assistant functionality earlier this month.
Microsoft announced the upcoming change in mobile apps in July.
This is not the end of Cortana, however; Microsoft is only backing down in all areas where Cortana was not gaining ground against competitors like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. But Cortana is still heavily integrated into Microsoft 365 in several ways; you can think of Cortana as the modern and much smarter equivalent of Clippy, in a way.
A few years ago (not that long ago at all, actually) the craze for smart assistants started sweeping through consumer electronics, and many large companies attempted to create their own assistants, from Google to Amazon, LG, Samsung, Microsoft and Apple. .
Most of this was due to smart speakers and some functionality in mobile devices, although the expansion of the smart home category also played a role. But it was impossible for all these offers of intelligent assistants to survive; consolidation was inevitable.
Among other things, this is because it is a heavy burden for many small tech companies to include support for the myriad of assistants in their hardware and software products. In recent years, Google and Amazon have achieved shared dominance in this large open space, with Apple’s Siri filling a smaller role on some devices.
Do you remember Bixby?
Like Samsung’s Bixby (which still exists but isn’t really making waves), Microsoft’s Cortana just couldn’t compete. And at least on the surface, it’s a shame – it was hard not to seek out the one who had the audacity to be named after a character from the video game. Halo, after all.
Today, Google Assistant and / or Amazon Alexa can be found in a large number of personal electronic products in one form or another. And while Apple’s Siri hasn’t had the same impact on the entire ecosystem, it does have a massive install base in Apple’s own products, and usage statistics suggest that users rely heavily on the assistant.
Meanwhile, you can (at least for the immediately foreseeable future) still find Cortana in Microsoft Office, answering your basic queries like a chat bot.
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