Microsoft Say Goodbye to Cortana

Later this year, Microsoft will stop making the Cortana app for Windows. This news comes just a few days after the release of Windows Copilot, an advanced AI assistant powered by OpenAI’s GPT language model.

At the Build conference in May, Microsoft showed off its newest tool, Windows Copilot. It’s in the taskbar, where Cortana used to be, but it can do a lot more than the old Windows helper. Once it is widely available, it will help you do things like summarize material, edit text, make inquiries, and manage your computer’s settings, among other things.

“We’re changing some things about Windows that will affect people who use the Cortana app. As of the end of 2023, we will no longer offer Cortana as a stand-alone app for Windows… This change only affects Cortana on Windows. Your productivity helper, Cortana, will still be available on Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms,” says the blog post.

“We know that this change may affect how you work in Windows, so we want to help you make the switch to the new choices as easily as possible. Now, you don’t have to click the Cortana icon and open the app to use voice. Instead, you can use voice and meet your work needs with different tools.

The ‘End’ Started in 2020

Cortana was first shown by Microsoft in 2015 as part of Windows 10. Users could use mouth commands to set reminders, open apps, and ask questions.

But Microsoft has slowly taken Cortana out of the Windows experience over the years. With the release of Windows 11, the digital assistant lost its place on the desktop and was no longer a part of the first boot experience. In 2020, Microsoft stopped supporting the Cortana app on iOS and Android and other devices, like Surface headphones, that used Cortana.

Even though Cortana won’t be available in Windows, it will still be available in Outlook mobile, Microsoft Teams mobile, Teams display, and Teams groups.

Microsoft has not said when Cortana will be taken out of Windows, so that date is unknown.

It is clear that Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into its set of AI tools, like the Bing robot and Microsoft 365 Copilot.