Virtual assistant Cortana has not added any new features in the past 2 years. Now, Microsoft provides an update that disables the app. Meanwhile, Siri is also long forgotten by Apple.
After a long time, Microsoft rolled out a new update for Cortana. However, instead of refreshing things, improving performance, or adding features, the update causes the virtual assistant to stop working on Windows 11.
According to Windows Latest, those interested in the once heavily promoted app won’t be surprised. For the past 2 years, Microsoft hasn’t released any updates to Cortana. The death was predicted in advance.
The End for Cortana
Cortana on computers appeared in 2014, at a time when Windows Phone was still available. This is Microsoft’s answer to Siri coming from Apple. At that time, the software giant ran a series of aggressive advertising campaigns aimed at rivals.
Now, as Siri continues to exist, Cortana has just stopped working on the latest version of Windows. After the update, the application opens with the message “Cortana in Windows as a standalone application is deprecated” and leads to a link to the Microsoft support documentation page.
The support document says Microsoft will disable the standalone app with the latest update in favor of Windows Copilot. The company advises users to switch to AI-powered software (artificial intelligence), including Bing Search and Windows Copilot.
“We’re making some changes to Windows that will affect users of the Cortana app. Starting in August 2023, we’re no longer supporting Cortana in Windows as a standalone app,” Microsoft said. note in the document.
Although discontinued on Windows 11, Cortana continues to work on Windows 10, which is scheduled to support updates until October 2025. According to an insider from Windows Latest, Microsoft will remove this virtual assistant from Windows 10 within the next few weeks.
Microsoft also removed Cortana from Microsoft Launcher for Android and elsewhere, but it’s still available in mobile apps like Outlook, and Teams.
Siri’s Future
According to Windows Latest, Cortana’s death update comes after about 2 years of this application without any new features. It seems that Siri is also in a similar situation. After being carefully cared for at first, recently Siri has not been updated as often by Apple as before.
Even Apple employees complain about the “organizational dysfunction and lack of ambition” of the Siri development program. The platform is still based on the old system. Therefore, the improvement requires a lot of work.
Meanwhile, the arrival of ChatGPT from the previous year ignited the AI chatbot war. On August 3, during the announcement of the financial report for the second quarter of 2023, CEO Tim Cook emphasized that Apple is researching “a variety of AI technologies”, including “next-generation AI” over the years.
This statement is reminiscent of recent rumors that Apple is developing an internal tool to compete with ChatGPT. However, while both Microsoft and Google have made AI chatbots available to users, Apple still has a lot of work to do ahead.
9to5mac thinks it’s time for Apple to completely abandon Siri, focusing resources on newer technologies, based on advanced artificial intelligence systems.
