Inspired by one of the most well-known characters from the Halo franchise, Microsoft's personal assistant Cortana is being deactivated from Android and iOS. A notice from the company informs that it is being support ended of the app for these operating systems, as part of an adjustment in their areas of innovation and development focus.

In the publication of the notice about the deactivation of Cortana for iOS and Android, Microsoft reinforces that the tool continues its evolution as a productivity assistant. The company informs that, as of March 31, Cortana content will no longer work in the mobile app of devices with these operating systems. However, reminders, lists and tasks created in the assistant are automatically synchronized with the Microsoft To Do app on Android and iOS, the user can download them for free to their phone.

Powered by artificial intelligence, Microsoft's personal assistant was launched in 2014, the same year that Amazon's Alexa was launched, and three years after the launch of Apple's Siri. Apple, two of its most famous rivals. Cortana was launched as an essential ingredient of a move by Microsoft for future Windows Phone, Xbox One and Windows operating systems.

Changes have been studied since 2018

At least since 2018, Cortana has been being questioned about its existence, or at least its purpose has been changing. On October 11 of that year, Microsoft's assistant became part of the Office unit. For many analysts at the company, this action could be understood as a sign that Cortana was becoming a productivity tool in its own software. Thus, it would also cease to be a competitor to Alexa and Siri, for example, which were gaining ground in the field of personal assistants, and the recently arrived Google Assistant.

At the end of 2019, Microsoft had announced that the personal assistant would leave the Android and iOS app stores in early 2020, for users in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, China, Spain and India. At the time, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company's plans were for Cortana to become as useful a virtual assistant as possible, being more deeply integrated into Microsoft 365 productivity apps. July last year, the company reinforced this path.

Cortana also disabled on Harman Kardon

https://twitter.com/HarmanKardon/status/1372085555689820163?s=20

With its focus increasingly on businesses, Cortana will continue to be active, for example, in Microsoft 365, in the integration with Outlook mobile and, for now, for the United States, in the mobile app. teams. Everything indicates that the Microsoft assistant inspired by the character that offers tactical information to players in the Halo universe has ended up transforming over time.

Part of this transformation has reached the Harman Kardon Invoke. Cortana support is being disabled also on the smart speaker. The firmware update began rolling out to all of the brand's devices this month. At the end of the process, the device will only function as a Bluetooth speaker, since its access to Wi-Fi via Cortana will be disabled.

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