Cortana is set to be cut from the Microsoft Launcher by the ‘end of April’

Damien Wilde | Mar 2 2020 - 5:06 am PT

We reported late last year that Microsoft was removing its Halo-inspired voice assistant from the Google Play Store in certain regions. Now, Cortana is set to be fully removed from the reasonably popular Microsoft Launcher in the coming months.

In a dedicated blog post, Microsoft outlined its plans for the internally-developed voice assistant and confirmed that Cortana services will be turned off within the Microsoft Launcher by “the end of April.”

As part of Cortana’s evolution into a personal productivity assistant in Microsoft 365, you’ll see some changes in how Cortana works in the latest version of Windows 10. We’ve tightened access to Cortana so that you must be securely logged in with your work or school account or your Microsoft account before using Cortana, and some consumer skills including music, connected home and third-party skills will no longer be available in the updated Cortana experience in Windows 10.

We’re also making some changes to where Cortana helps you. As part of our standard practice, we are ending support for Cortana in older versions of Windows that have reached their end-of-service dates. We recommend that customers update their devices to the latest version of Windows 10 to continue using Cortana. We’ll also be turning off the Cortana services in the Microsoft Launcher on Android by the end of April.

Microsoft will instead focus on enhancing the Windows 10 experience with Cortana, making it more productivity-based rather than a catch-all AI assistant. Given the domination of the Google Assistant on Android devices, this comes as no real shock but it’s disappointing for any of you who do like to use Master Chief’s AI aide on the daily.