Cortana will be removed from iOS and Android Apps Stores next year. Microsoft confirmed in a support page that it’ll pull the digital assistant as a standalone app from both platforms on January 31, 2020. This removal won’t be in all countries.
The countries where Cortana is going to be removed are these: United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, China, Spain, and India. The entire list of countries doesn’t appear on the support page, but Microsoft confirmed all of them to The Verge. It is a sign that additional countries will lose support next year.
The standalone app lets Cortana listen to voice commands and respond through its knowledge graph or integrated third-party services. It tried competing with Siri on iOS and Google Assistant on Android, but Cortana failed to gain the war. Now, it’ll be transitioned to a built-in feature on Microsoft’s other products.
“Cortana is an integral part of our broader vision to bring the power of conversational computing and productivity to all our platforms and devices,” a Microsoft spokesperson told to The Verge. To make Cortana as helpful as possible, we’re integrating Cortana deeper into your Microsoft 365 productivity apps, and part of this evolution involves ending support for the Cortana mobile app on Android and iOS.”
Microsoft hasn’t shared what will happen to the Cortana app in the United States, though it’ll likely lose support sometime in 2020.
If you’re on Windows 10, Cortana should remain in action. It doesn’t look like Microsoft has any plans to discontinue the digital assistant altogether. Cortana will continue to operate on PCs and other Microsoft 366 products.