Microsoft And Amazon recently announced that the Alexa and Cortana digital assistants are now integrated with each other as part of a public preview mode. This means that Cortana can be activated through Amazon’s Alexa-based devices and Alexa can be activated through Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant.
Microsoft originally announced the integration at the Build 2018 conference in Seattle a few months ago without a specific timeline. The Alexa-Cortana integration is currently in public preview mode.
You can use Cortana on Echo devices by saying “Alexa, open Cortana.” Then you will be connected to Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant.
Photo: Microsoft
Customers who have a compatible Windows 10 device or Harmon Kardon Invoke speaker can use Alexa on their devices by saying “Hey Cortana, open Alexa.” Or you can click on the microphone button and say “open Alexa” and then sign into your Amazon account. And this integration will work on iOS and Android sometime in the near future.
“This is just the start for Alexa and Cortana, which means features like music, audio books, and flash briefing will not be available immediately,” said Amazon in a blog post. “But the experience will continue to improve as we work with Microsoft to add new capabilities and features over time. And because Alexa is always getting smarter, the experience will get better the more you use it.”
A Microsoft spokesperson said that the integration is in public preview in order to provide feedback to the teams involved can continue improving the experience.
Under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has become a much more open and collaborative company in order to push user adoption. “We want to make it possible for our customers to get the most out of their personal digital assistants – not be bound to some walled garden,” said Nadella via TechCrunch.
