It's been a while since there has been any good news around Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant, and in typical Friday fashion, today is no different. Microsoft announced some significant changes coming to Cortana, and for fans of the product, the changes are not good.
For one thing, Cortana is going to have the ability to do much less. It's losing music, smart home, and third-party skills. This is particularly a big deal if you make use of the Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker, and we've reached out to Microsoft regarding future functionality of the device.
The firm said that it's removing Cortana functionality from the Microsoft Lauuncher app on Android. While it previously announced this, it's now providing a timeframe, so the feature will be gone by the end of April. And in case you forgot, the iOS and Android Cortana apps have already been killed off.
Finally, Microsoft is killing off Cortana in versions of Windows 10 that have reached their end of support. Yes, that also means Windows 10 Mobile, along with several Windows 10 for PC versions.
The writing has been on the wall for Cortana for some time, and while it's not going away completely, it's not going to resemble a consumer product in any way. If you rely on it, you may want to think about moving somewhere else.
50 Comments - Add comment