Microsoft has officially stopped supporting the Cortana app on Windows 11. A recent update has turned off the digital assistant, and this happened after Microsoft had already shut down the Cortana apps for iPhones and Android devices three years ago.
If you try to open Cortana on a Windows 11 computer, you’ll get a message saying the app is no longer supported. Microsoft’s plan also includes stopping Cortana from working on mobile Teams, Microsoft Teams Display, and Microsoft Teams Rooms, starting in the fall of 2023. But the good news is that Cortana will still be around in Outlook on mobile devices.
Cortana’s story goes back to when it was a digital assistant on Windows Phone. Later, it became part of Windows 10 in 2015. It was built into the Windows 10 taskbar, where it could do things like listen to voice commands, set reminders, and open programs.
At first, Cortana was right there in the Windows 11 taskbar and setup process, but later on, Microsoft took it out of those places. However, they kept the separate Cortana app until now.
Even though Cortana got big changes for iPhones and Android phones, it still had trouble keeping up with rivals like Alexa and Google Assistant. This was tied to the problems faced by Windows Phone. Microsoft’s big boss, Satya Nadella, said in 2019 that Cortana was falling behind its competition.
Looking to the future, Microsoft is working on something called “Windows Copilot.” It’s a new assistant that lives in a sidebar for Windows 11. This helper will use Bing Chat to help you with settings, questions, and other tasks. It should start working in the fall, when Microsoft updates Windows 11. These updates will also make it so you can use special formats like RAR and 7-Zip right in Windows 11.