Perhaps nobody would miss it but it was (somewhat) nice knowing you Cortana, the AI assistant that arrived with Windows 10 in 2015. Many saw the move coming in recent months as Microsoft pivoted towards solutions from OpenAI in which the company has made a massive investment.
The standalone Cortana app won’t be supported beginning later this year. The news comes days after the announcement of Windows Copilot, which was shown at Microsoft’s Build 2023 conference. Interestingly, Microsoft back then gave the impression that Cortana and Windows Copilot would coexist because the serve different purposes. Anyway, the focus now is on Windows Copilot, alongside which there’s the new Bing, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and voice access in Windows.
Over the years, Cortana lost its following among users and its place on the user’s taskbar with the release of Windows 11. Microsoft also shut down the Cortana app on iOS and Android in 2020.
Cortana arrived at a time when Microsoft had to compete with the likes of Apple’s Siri. It was first introduced as a virtual assistant for Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014 and then it came to Windows 10. Cortana will now live on through Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Teams display, and Teams rooms.