Back in August 2017, Microsoft and Amazon made a surprising announcement that the two will be opening each other’s digital assistants Cortana and Alexa.
A development that will effectively open up each Windows 10 platform to Alexa, and the Amazon Echo. You might even say ‘Alexa, Open Cortana’ or vice versa. You will be able to use Alexa to query for information only Cortana will be privy to, and the reverse.
That Microsoft and Amazon are planning to open up each other’s digital assistant for each other is no new news. They announced they would do so back in August, but up to now, it has just been a lot of saying, but not enough doing; well, no doing at all.
Thurrot.com picked up the matter again and chased after the duo to know precisely when Alexa and Cortana will be merged. Neither Microsoft nor Amazon was committal on the exact date, but they both showed enthusiasm that the merge was going to happen soon.
“We’ll have more to share soon,” said Microsoft spokesperson. On its part, Amazon issued a statement that in part read, “We’re working on it, and expect to begin rolling it out soon.”
Earlier on Satya Nadella was quoted saying, “The personality and expertise of each (personal assistant) will be such that if they interoperated, the user will get more out of it. That resonated for me and for him, and then that’s what led to the teams working.
There are probably tens of million Amazon Echo devices sold out there. While Cortana exists in hundreds of millions of Windows 10, Android, and iOS device. Amazon Alexa stands to benefit significantly when the floodgates of users from Cortana are availed to it.
“In my view of the world, because that would be best for the customer, that’s probably what eventually happens,” said Jeff Bezos last years.
