Windows Killing Cortana Virtual Assistant

In a latest support document, Microsoft has announced the end of support for its virtual assistant Cortana in Windows starting August 2023. Though Cortana will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms, this move signals Microsoft's roadmap to tread away from the Cortana ecosystem and venture into other AI-powered tools that it has started bundling with Bing (Chat AI) and Office 365 (Office 365 Copilot). They have also introduced Windows Copilot with its latest preview of Windows 11 in June 2023.

In January 2015, Microsoft announced the availability of Cortana for Windows 10 desktops and mobile devices as part of merging Windows Phone into the operating system at large. In my personal experience an Acer Aspire V 15 V3-574-7481 running Windows 10 was the first laptop that I used Cortana on. It was interesting but I was not impressed as much as the Google Voice Assistant. I have always kept it disabled on my devices since then.

Over the years Cortana has also been bundled in several 3rd-party voice-activated devices like Harman Kardon's INVOKE speakers, ecobee smart-thermostats, Johnson Controls Glas thermostats, Nest smart-thermostats Honeywell's Lyric and Total Connect Comfort smart-thermostats, LIFX smart-lights, TP-Link Kasa smart plugs, and Geeni smart home devices, Philips Hue smart-lights and Wink smart home devices.

In the last few years, Microsoft has removed Cortana from the Xbox, iOS and Android.

Microsoft's 2nd June 2023 statement on their support website is here.

Rich Woods writes about it here at XDA Developers.