Microsoft claims Cortana has more monthly active users than the Amazon Echo

In an effort to woo developers of Amazon Echo skills Microsoft has sent out a circular claiming Cortana had a significantly larger user base.

The email claims:

“Cortana has 145 million monthly active users across Windows, Android, iOS and Xbox.”

Microsoft is trying to convince developers to port their Amazon Alexa skills to the Cortana Skills Kit (CSK), presumably promising greater reach and engagement.

Microsoft has previously boasted about the quiet success of Cortana, claiming it produced a significant boost in their Bing search traffic.  It was also then in October 2016 that Microsoft confirmed that 141 million users were using the Cortana search box, suggesting the 145 million number was not referring to voice searchers, and that the comparison is somewhat disingenuous.

Unlike the Echo where users specifically purchase the device and are presumably enthusiastic about voice control and expanding the skill set of their digital assistant we suspect Windows 10 users are less convinced by Cortana being bundled with their PC.

Microsoft is of course trying to make it easy for developers to port their Alexa Skills to Cortana by using much of the same syntax and methods,  but I think those expecting a big pay-off from the effort would be somewhat disappointed.