Microsoft’s plan to integrate Cortana with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant seems to have quietly disappeared. If you used Cortana on an Amazon Alexa device, you've likely been rebuffed by Alexa of late; she now says: "Sorry, the Cortana skill is no longer available."
In case you forgot, Microsoft and Amazon in 2017 announced they were working to tie the two voice assistants together. The ensuing partnership meant you could use an Amazon Echo device to summon Cortana to open up your Microsoft programs, such as Outlook.
But on Monday, Microsoft told PCMag it dropped Cortana support on Alexa two months ago. "As of Sept. 18, we decided to end the Cortana on Alexa experience as it previously existed and shift our Cortana resources to focus on productivity within Microsoft 365,” according to a spokesperson.
Microsoft says it began notifying customers about the change through “in-product notifications leading up to Sept. 18.” But at least in our case, we didn’t receive any notification. Instead, we stumbled on the issue when we tried to summon Cortana on an Echo device. In response, Amazon’s Alexa apologized and said the Cortana skill was no longer available.
Cortana's Slow Shift to the Enterprise
The move isn’t a total surprise. For one, we suspect there were very few people who actually used Cortana on Amazon's Echo devices.
Microsoft also began retiring the Cortana app for iOS and Android last year. The company also shut down third-party support for Cortana skills in September 2020. And the voice-activated AI has become all but vestigial in Windows 11, where it's no longer installed by default, though it's available in the Microsoft Store. On Windows 10, Microsoft removed the assistant's ability to do basic on-device functions like lowering the volume or shutting down the PC.
Microsoft’s goal has been to instead focus Cortana on the company’s business productivity software for PCs and mobile devices, especially those involving Microsoft 365 and Outlook, and to let Alexa apps take care of personal needs. It’s why the company spokesperson added: “You are still able to access all your favorite Alexa features on your Windows and Xbox devices and Cortana via Microsoft 365 apps and services, as well as access Microsoft services, including Outlook calendar integration, through Alexa-enabled devices.”
With no Microsoft skill available for Alexa other than the Xbox skill, how interested users can pull this last part off remains unclear. We asked Microsoft for more information.
Amazon also didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Microsoft notes it still "values" its partnership with the company.
“We remain committed to the Voice Interoperability Initiative and value our ongoing relationship with Amazon. We will continue to partner together on innovations both with assistants and agents, and via other products and services," Redmond says.
In the meantime, you can still access Alexa on a Windows PC. But it requires first installing the Alexa app from the Microsoft Store, and it still won't perform basic tasks like shutting down the PC, though it can raise and lower the computer speaker volumes. It's yet another case of Microsoft abandoning its own technology and yielding to a more successful competitor.