Microsoft has just killed Cortana – its Windows Phone-era digital assistant and its answer to Apple’s Siri. A new Microsoft Store update, which is rolling out to some users on Windows 11, shuts down the Cortana standalone app. This development was first spotted by Windows Latest on Thursday morning.
Microsoft is shutting down the standalone “Cortana” app with Windows 11’s Store app in favour of Windows Copilot. The Cortana app now opens with the “Cortana in Windows as a standalone app is deprecated” alert and has a link to a learn more page, which opens Microsoft’s support documentation.
“We are making some changes to Windows that will impact users of the Cortana app. Starting in August 2023, we will no longer support Cortana in Windows as a standalone app. However, you can still access powerful productivity features in Windows and Edge, which have increased AI capabilities,” Microsoft noted in the document spotted by Windows Latest.
Cortana has stopped working on Windows 11, and Microsoft plans to kill off the app on Windows 10 within a few days, a source close to the company confirmed. Instead, anyone who wants an assistant or copilot for their desktops should use the Windows Copilot, which is arriving with the Windows 11 23H2 update.
This is a developing story…
