When Microsoft launched Cortana back in 2015, it was another voice assistant to rival Siri, Alexa, and their equivalents. Cortana first made the headlines when it outpaced more established players in 2018. A report found that Microsoft Cortana had won 78% of enterprise adoption — standing shoulder to shoulder with Google Assistant — significantly ahead of IBM Watson (69%), Siri (68%), and the then-hugely-popular Samsung Bixby (62%).
So a lot of us were surprised when Microsoft announced that it would soon retire the Cortana mobile app across 2020.
Does this portend a slowdown of Microsoft’s investments in voice recognition and controls? Quite the opposite!
The company is rolling out tighter integrations between Cortana and the larger Microsoft 365 productivity suite, where Cortana is a feature or enhancement rather than a standalone app. This could boost usage, as the users of Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and other productivity tools wouldn’t need to install another application to access voice assistance. It fits very well into Microsoft’s larger vision for interoperability, integration, and building a 360-degree ecosystem.
So expectedly, Cortana features front and centre In Microsoft’s announcements for Ignite 2020. Here are the top four highlights:
- Hear, don’t just read your emails – A feature called Play My Emails will allow Cortana to read out your emails on Outlook Mobile (iOS and Android). You can interact with the email content via voice, dictating a reply, playing emails from a specific person, or even calling the sender right from your smartphone
It’s partially rolled out already, with complete implementation across Australia, Canada, the US, the UK, and India by September.
- Get your daily briefing from Cortana – This brings your daily updates, reminders, and notifications on the move, integrating with the Microsoft To-Do platform. The objective is to streamline planning and enhance productivity for managers
It’s scheduled to become generally available on Microsoft 365 Enterprise from September — watch this space as more updates arrive over the next few months.
- Discover an enhanced Cortana app for Windows 10 – the Cortana app will lean more towards productivity than ever before. A series of updates will make it easier to look up documents and write quick emails, while hands-free users can now activate Cortana by simply saying “wake”
It’s coming to US and UK users starting September, with more updates planned over the next few months.
- Control Microsoft Teams Displays through voice – We’ve are really excited about the new crop of Microsoft’s all-in-one, Teams–native displays that are extremely relevant in this WFH world. Now, you’ll be able to control these devices using Cortana Voice Assistance. Similar capabilities are scheduled for Microsoft Teams Rooms and smart speakers as well, and we can’t wait!
It’s coming to Microsoft Teams Displays in Australia, Canada, India, and the UK starting September. The Teams Rooms update is scheduled for US users later in the year.
Weaving voice controls into the broader productivity experience is an excellent idea, which could beef up Cortana usage numbers by converting those who don’t want to install yet another app. We look forward to more such integrations, and, of course, qualitative enhancements to the underlying technology itself.
