“Hey Cortana”… Bye Bye!

On Friday, June 2, 2023, Microsoft announced they will shut down the Cortana standalone app on Windows 10 and Windows 11 later this year. This is because of more powerful productivity and increased AI capabilities tools in Windows and Edge.

This change will only affect Cortana in Windows as it will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile and Microsoft Teams display and rooms.

Microsoft says that instead of clicking the Cortana icon and launching the app or saying the wake word “Hey Cortana”, we now have different tools. Unfortunately, some of these new tools will only be available in Windows 11.

Here the list of Microsoft’s “replacements” for Cortana:
Voice Access in Windows 11
The new AI powered BING
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Windows Copilot (Available for WIndows 11 starting this month)

You can read more about these options from the link below.

Microsoft launched Cortana back in April of 2014. The Cortana app was originally developed for the Windows Phone 8.1 and has been included in other Windows devices and operating systems, including Windows 10 and 11. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s digital assistant failed to gain momentum as it’s competitors, Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri won that race.

Here’s the link to Mircosoft’s announcement:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/end-of-support-for-cortana-in-windows-d025b39f-ee5b-4836-a954-0ab646ee1efa