You have to go a long way back to find any good news for Cortana. A long way back. The digital assistant from Microsoft just got a bunch of significant changes, and they are heartbreaking.
For fans and users of the voice assistant, that is.
As announced, Cortana will soon have the ability to do much less.
For it is losing capabilities like music, smart home, even third-party skills. This is a big blow to folks who invested in the Harmon Kardon Invoke smart speaker, as it puts the future functionality of the device in question.
And then there is the removal of the Cortana functionality from the Microsoft Launcher app on Android, which the software titan had previously announced, but has now provided a timeframe for. This will be a done deed come April, and the feature will be gone by the end of next month.
No surprises, as the iOS and Android Cortana apps have already been killed off.
Speaking of killing off, Redmond is also removing Cortana in versions of Windows 10 that have reached end of support. Several Windows 10 versions are in line, as is Windows 10 Mobile, which itself has seen better days like Cortana.
Then again, this writing has been on the wall for quite some time.
While Cortana is not going away completely, it is not going to resemble a consumer product any longer.
So, if voice assistants are your thing, then you will simply have to move to a different service, of which there are a few available out in the wild. Cortana just is no longer the focus for Microsoft, at least as far as end users are concerned.
