Microsoft to pull plug on Cortana mobile app, bring Cortana to Office apps

If you’re a loyal user of the Microsoft Cortana app on Android or iOS, brace yourself for some bad news. Microsoft has confirmed that it intends to pull the plug on the Cortana mobile app by the end of January 2020 in certain regions, including India, Australia, Canada, and the UK. Cortana will also cease to exist on the Microsoft Launcher for Android. Microsoft says that its virtual assistant service will eventually find itself in future Microsoft Office products even if the dedicated mobile app is discontinued.

“After January 31st, 2020, the Cortana mobile app on your phone will no longer be supported and there will be an updated version of Microsoft Launcher with Cortana removed,” writes Microsoft in a support page applicable to users in Australia, Canada, and the UK. According to a confirmation received by The Verge, this will apply to users in India, China, Spain, Germany, and Mexico as well. Users in the US, however, may continue to see the app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Microsoft says that any reminders, tasks, or lists created in the Cortana mobile app will continue to exist in the Microsoft To Do app, which you can find here. This data can also be accessed through Cortana on Windows 10. Microsoft first announced that it would launch a dedicated Cortana app on Android and iOS back in May 2015. Though the official app release happened in December that year, the APK file for Android was leaked shortly after the announcement.

In its support page, Microsoft mentions that it’s discontinuing the Cortana mobile app to make way for a deeper integration of its virtual assistant in its popular Office suite of productivity applications. Though we don’t know when this will happen or what the finished product will look like, we can expect Cortana in Microsoft Office to work like a redesigned Clippit, except through voice commands from the user instead of mouse clicks.

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