Cortana To No Longer Be Voice Of Microsoft On Smartphones

Microsoft will soon be cutting off its virtual assistant Cortana for smartphones. The Cortana app on both iOS and Android will no longer run after January 31, the company announced. The voice assistant will function only in the US henceforth, reports say.

Microsoft Cortana Mobile App Ends On Mobiles

This means that Microsoft will be ending the Cortana app in regions including India, China, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Spain, and the UK from January 31, 2020. However, it's not all surprising that Microsoft will continue the Cortana operations in the US, especially for those using the Surface Headphones.

In an interview with VentureBeat, Andrew Shuman who leads the Cortana team said that there are "people who use their Cortana apps to manage their headphone operation." But the reason doesn't hold a substantial ground and the company will go ahead and remove the app. For Android devices, Microsoft will be removing the Cortana from the Launcher app.

Microsoft Cortana Continues On Windows

Shuman also talked about the Cortana smart speaker, which other Microsoft executives generally avoid. Those users who still have the Cortana smart speaker can continue using the app. To quote Shuman, "people who have Invokes in the market can still use the Cortana app to configure their Invokes, so those markets are all still going."

There's more. Microsoft says that Cortana on Android and iOS devices didn't revive much traction outside the US and there was much lower usage and engagement. However, keeping the Cortana app in the US will allow the company to continue experimenting. Microsoft believes that "the assistant landscape is rich with opportunity, and very not rich with actual results, sometimes. And so the opportunity to continue to try things quickly is important to us as well," Shuman added.

However, with stiff competition from Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and the Google Assistant, Microsoft is having a hard time catching the smartphone market for voice assistants. Yet, Cortana will continue for Windows. A major Windows 10 update is expected in the first half of 2020, which could have Cortana enhancements as well.