Microsoft drops Cortana consumer skills in new Windows 10 update

[Karlston]

Microsoft drops Cortana consumer skills in new Windows 10 update

Refocusing on productivity

Cortana on Windows 10 is getting some changes, Microsoft announced today, as the company shifts focus for what it wants its personal assistant to be. The new Cortana will emphasize productivity features, like helping to manage your schedule, adding to-do items, or sending emails.

 

As part of that shift, Microsoft is removing some of the older consumer-facing functionality like the ability to control music, manage a smart home, or support for third-party Cortana skills. In other words, Microsoft is going to stop trying to have Cortana emulate Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, and focus more on features that fit in with the rest of Microsoft’s software suite.

 

Microsoft isn’t removing everything from Cortana — you’ll still be able to communicate with the assistant through voice or text, and more basic smart assistant functions like alarms and timers, settings, or conversational answers will still work, too. As part of Microsoft revamping Cortana, it’ll also be removing Cortana from the Microsoft Launcher on Android at the end of April.

 

The updated Cortana will roll out later this spring, but the new productivity features will only launch in the US at first. International users will still be able to get answers from Bing and talk with Cortana, though, with plans to add more features in the future.

 

 

Source: Microsoft drops Cortana consumer skills in new Windows 10 update (The Verge)

[Karlston]

cortana is dead. long live cortana —

Cortana’s not Alexa—skills are going away in Windows 10 version 2004

We've got bad news for anyone with Cortana-centered smart home setups.

Enlarge / Pictured: a full set of Office 365 icons on the taskbar. Not pictured, for good reason: "Cortana, play Old Town Road."

Microsoft

Today, Microsoft announced a major shift in focus for its personal assistant, Cortana: she's getting out of the consumer gadget business and focusing on productivity. The new version of Cortana will debut with the next major update to Windows 10, expected to roll out in April.

 

Microsoft is tightening access to Cortana considerably. First and foremost, no more Cortana use for anyone only using local accounts. Cortana access will only be available to those logged in with school work domain accounts or Microsoft online accounts—Windows 10 users sticking to local accounts only will also be out of luck.

 

The new Cortana's focus will be on a productivity-focused chat UI. Users will be able to review or set calendar items and tasks in natural English as well as query or create emails, set alarms and timers, open apps, and find people or files. She'll also search the Internet for you—using Bing, of course—or offer jokes.

 

The majority of Cortana's consumer-focused skills are scheduled to get the axe. "Some consumer skills including music, connected home, and third-party skills will no longer be available in the updated Cortana experience in Windows 10," Andrew Shuman, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Cortana, wrote in today's announcement.

 

Microsoft clarified to ZDNet that Cortana apps on iOS and Android will still be able to control home devices and smart speakers. This may not be too helpful, though, since the Android and iOS Cortana apps themselves are being rapidly deprecated.

Looking for a silver lining

We hope to see positives to the drastic tightening of focus on Cortana. A more capable work assistance is great, but we've got our eye on something simpler. The single most common use of Cortana—to the point many people don't know they're using "Cortana" at all—is integrated search from the Start menu. And, frankly, it has never been that great.

 

For example, the quickest way to access the Devices and Printers applet under Control Panel in Windows 7 was to hit Start, then type "dev"—which would bring up Devices and Printers applets in results instantly, at which point the user could just press enter to launch it.

 

Since Cortana's Start menu integration, there has been no way to get Devices and Printers to come up directly—you must instead start typing "con" to bring up Control Panel, open it, and then locate the Devices and Printers icon inside. This isn't the only failing of Start menu search, by far, but it's one that's bitten us repeatedly, and we'd love to see it fixed.

 

We don't know that the local search feature will see improvements in the new Cortana. But cutting out the gadget and music controls should free a lot of developer hours for focus on more core functionality, and we hope local search will see some of that benefit.

 

 

Source: Cortana’s not Alexa—skills are going away in Windows 10 version 2004 (Ars Technica) 

[Karlston]

Cortana officially gets thrown under the bus

An amazing Friday blog post from Cortana corporate VP Andrew Shuman:

Today, Microsoft is announcing an updated Cortana experience in Windows 10 that will deliver more help from your assistant in Microsoft 365. This next step in Cortana’s evolution will bring enhanced, seamless personal productivity assistance as a free update to the latest version of Windows 10 coming this spring…

 

We’re excited about how these updates to Cortana will help you stay on top of things, save time and do your best work. As we continue to innovate on Cortana in Microsoft 365, we plan to share further improvements in the coming months.

Tero Alhonen had an accurate synopsis on Twitter:

We’re excited about these updates to Cortana:
* consumer skills including music, connected home and third-party skills will no longer be available
* ending support for Cortana in older versions of Windows
* turning off the Cortana services in the Microsoft Launcher on Android

and we plan to share further improvements in the coming months.

He then turned to the demise of certain MCSE certifications, posted yesterday by Alex Payne, the GM of Global Technical Learning at MS….

We’re also excited to share that there will not be Windows Server 2019 and SQL Server 2019 certifications and basically everything that has anything to do with on-prem will be wiped out

(That’s Tero’s take, but it’s a fair representation of what’s happening.)

 

 

Source: Cortana officially gets thrown under the bus (AskWoody - Woody Leonhard)

[steven36]

It falls in line  very much  in line  with what Microsoft is doing  by shifting away from consumers since  Windows have not sold good to them since windows 7 was new ,

 

-----

Microsoft’s Cortana drops consumer skills as it refocuses on business users

 

As the company explained last year, it now mostly thinks of Cortana as a service for business users. The new Cortana is all about productivity, with deep integrations into Microsoft’s suite of Office tools, for example. In this context, consumer services are only a distraction, and Microsoft is leaving that market to the likes of Amazon and Google .

 

Because the new Cortana experience is all about Microsoft 365, the subscription service that includes access to the Office tools, email, online storage and more, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the assistant’s new feature will give you access to data from these tools, including your calendar, Microsoft To Do notes and more.

 

Source  https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/28/microsofts-cortana-drops-consumer-skills-as-it-refocuses-on-business-users/

 

it's just a small lost to home users anyway Cortana was kind of stupid anyway it only was ever optimized  for English US so no one  much used  it  this is just another step  in becoming just like another IBM. Buy doing this there admitting  defeat  in the consumer market and this is what i told people on here some weeks ago . Windows 10 is full of these dead features that died  for consumers when Windows phone collapsed . Why  would you make great features for a group of users were makes you no money ? It good to see them being honest for a change  instead  trying to sell home users on a pipe dream .

 

  This is the price consumers are paying for not buying Windows 8/8.1  and getting Windows 10 home /pro for free  you get what you paid for if it's closed source for profit software .It's free but with a price  ether it has less features or they collect data off you  and in many cases  they do both.     .