• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, June 5, 2023

Microsoft quietly announced the end of support for Cortana in Windows 10 and Windows 11 a few months ago, pushing users toward the new Bing powered by artificial intelligence (AI), Microsoft 365 Copilot, Windows Copilot and other products.

“We are making some changes to Windows that will impact users of the Cortana app,” Microsoft explains in a support document online. “Starting in late 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app.”

In 2019, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in 2019 confirmed that Cortana would never be competitive with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, and called the technology a backend service, according to one report.

Then, in July 2020, Microsoft announced the end of support for the Cortana app on Android and iPhone, following through on the promise in March 2021. The following June, the company said it would not include support for Cortana in Windows 11.

Productivity features in Windows and Edge are still available with the increase in AI capabilities in tasks, calendar, and email. The change only impacts Cortana in Windows. Cortana will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms.

Rather than click on the Cortana icon to launch the app, users rely on their voice through different tools. The transition puts voice access and AI in Windows 11 in the foreground.

This new feature in Windows 11 enables users to write text using their voice. Voice commands will open and switch between apps, browse the web, and read and write emails.

Voice access works offline and uses advanced speech recognition to understand your speech and help you get things done.

The AI-powered Bing allows users to ask complex questions and get concise answers from reliable sources across the web. Users can type or speak questions in Bing Chat to gain insight from multiple sources. 

Microsoft 365 Copilot feature uses AI and the user’s data from calendar, emails, chats, documents, and meetings to help create, edit and share content, and more.

Windows Copilot, available in preview for Windows 11 in June, provides centralized AI assistance.

Together with Bing Chat and first- and third-party plugins, users can collaborate on complex projects.