The preview of the latest Windows 11 build is missing one big thing: the Cortana app. This change was detailed in an official Windows Insider blog post (intended for people helping test early versions of upcoming Windows 11 updates), providing a link to an additional page with more details about ending support for the standalone Cortana app.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen talk of effectively killing the Cortana app. BleepingComputer reports on a new preview release of the Canary channel with the Cortana app and support for it removed earlier this year. The future of Cortana was originally announced in June, when Microsoft first detailed its plans to end support for the standalone app.
At the time, Microsoft wrote that support for Cortana would also eventually end for a range of Microsoft products, including Teams Mobile, the Teams Display and Teams Rooms, and that voice assistance for Outlook Mobile and Outlook Mobile would also end in the second half. Microsoft 365 Mobile. from this year.
This is a big step for Microsoft, which has put a lot of time and resources into Cortana, integrating it deeply into the Windows operating system and tailoring it to a number of Microsoft apps and products. However, it was long expected to eventually be culled after Microsoft announced on its official support blog two years ago that support for the Cortana mobile app would end.
The new kid on the block, Copilot
Cortana’s departure makes way for Microsoft’s new central focus, the AI-equipped assistant called Copilot, which was announced at this year’s Build conference. Users were able to try out Copilot after the Windows 11 22H2 update was released on September 26. Microsoft’s CVP, Yusuf Mehdi, stated that “Copilot will uniquely integrate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data, and what you do in the environment at that moment,” and emphasized that Microsoft was prioritizing privacy and security.
After an optional update (or eventually I’ll assume a mandatory update), Copilot will be enabled by default, allowing users to configure settings using Microsoft’s Intune policy or Group Policy (for groups and organizations). This was clarified by Harjit Dhaliwal, a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, in a Microsoft enterprise blog post.
In addition to co-pilot, Microsoft has told users this how to use the AI-powered search engine Bing Search and enable voice assistance capabilities through Voice Access in Windows 11.
The demise of Cortana is not that surprising, as the voice assistant received very mixed reception and received a lot of criticism. Microsoft seems to want to give it another try and is clearly hoping that the AI-powered Copilot will do better. Although Copilot has taken some shaky first steps, it is innovative and has a lot of potential.