Microsoft's Surface Earbuds will work with Cortana, Google Assistant, and more

At its event yesterday, Microsoft announced a number of new devices, including the long-rumored dual-screen handset - the Surface duo, a larger dual-screen tablet - the Surface Neo, and a bunch of other products. The firm also unveiled its upcoming Surface Earbuds with Office 365 integration, and touch, gesture, and voice control.

Now, according to Arif over at OnMSFT, Microsoft representatives have confirmed that these earbuds will work with digital assistants that are running on the paired devices. As such, although support for only Cortana and Google assistant has verbally been verified, it is more or less confirmed that Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and other voice assistants will work with the earbuds as well.

Since no native digital assistant software is offered with the Surface Earbuds, it is expected that any digital assistant should work, as long as it is installed on users' devices. The fact that this process now seems to be completely device-dependent also implies that multiple digital assistants installed on the same device can probably be switched between without running into any additional trouble.

As announced at the event, the earbuds will also combine with Microsoft's Office apps and Azure Cognitive Services to offer a richer experience for users. They also support real-time translation for over 60 languages.

The Surface Earbuds will be available later this year for $249. Microsoft also opened pre-orders for some new Surface accessories yesterday that you can check out here.

Source: OnMSFT