Redmond(USA), 06/08/23: Microsoft appears to be discontinuing the standalone Cortana app for some Windows 11 users. Currently limited to Windows Insiders on the Dev and Canary channels, the tech giant looks to be making Cortana obsolete via a Microsoft Store update.
According to XDADevelopers, the Cortana app on the Microsoft Store has gotten an update that includes the phrase ‘Cortana on Windows as a standalone app is deprecated’.
Just below the notification is a ‘Learn More’ button, which when clicked sends visitors to a support page, implying that the change solely affects Windows.
Cortana appears to be continuing to work on other products such as Microsoft Teams display, Microsoft Teams Rooms, Teams mobile, and Outlook mobile until Microsoft decides to discontinue those versions in favour of the upcoming OpenAI-backed GPT-powered Bing Search.
If you are on other inner channels, the AI assistant will continue to work for a while longer before stopping for everyone before the end of the month.
Cortana was first introduced in 2014 with Windows Phone 8.1, and it was later added to Microsoft’s desktop operating system with the release of Windows 10. When it couldn’t compete with Google Assistant and Apple’s Siri, the IT behemoth began to phase out the AI-powered assistant. Microsoft shut down the Android and iOS versions of Cortana in 2018, and three years later, support was stopped.
Microsoft is replacing Cortana with Windows Copilot, a new Bing-powered AI assistant that interacts with apps using Windows 11 APIs and can help users alter various settings such as device style, Bing search, and more. The new Windows Copilot is set to be released in the upcoming Windows 11 23H2 update.
