There have been indications of Microsoft shutting down Cortana on Android and iOS since long. Now, Microsoft has confirmed that it will be shutting down the services on both smartphone operating systems officially. Come 2021 and you will no longer be able to use Cortana on your Android and iOS devices.
Microsoft had given us a peep into the shut down when it removed the option to use Cortana from its Android launcher. Now, there is detailed information available from Microsoft indicating the shut down for the two popular operating systems.
To begin with, Microsoft will remove the Cortana skills from third-party starting September 7, 2020. Later on, the Cortana app support will be discontinued from iOS and Android devices in 2021. The support for Surface headphones will also be discontinued.
Will this be the end of Cortana?
Not exactly. If you are looking at the end of Cortana on smartphones, that would be a true statement. However, Cortana will continue to stay as a productivity focussed digital helper. It will go through a few tweaks and changes to make it suitable to work with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Outlook.
Microsoft will repurpose Cortana as the productivity app and will be a part of the Microsoft 365 Suite. The tech giant is perhaps focussing on using the voice assistant feature that complements its own existing products than competing with the established players in the sphere of voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
As Microsoft made it clear in its statement,
A completely redesigned Cortana is already available on Windows 10 with the newly added productivity features and stripping down of the features such as music integration.
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