Microsoft disables Cortana on Windows through an app update

Back in 2019, Microsoft announced that Cortana iOS and Android apps would be killed as it would integrate Cortana directly into Microsoft 365 productivity apps. However, the dedicated Cortana app on Windows remained as it was for several years. In June this year, Microsoft announced that it would kill the Cortana app on Windows starting in August 2023.

Yesterday, Microsoft started the rollout of a new update for the Cortana Windows app in Microsoft Store. Once this update is installed, all the Cortana app functionalities will be disabled.

Cortana will continue to be available in Outlook mobile, Teams mobile, Microsoft Teams display, and Microsoft Teams rooms.

Microsoft recommends users check out Windows Copilot as a replacement for Cortana on Windows. For those who don’t know, Windows Copilot is essentially Bing Chat for Windows 11, except that the former is integrated into the OS. The benefit of an integrated AI chatbot is that you can control pretty much all the settings in the OS with the help of simple prompts. For example, you can ask Windows Copilot to enable the dark mode, and it will do that in the blink of an eye, eliminating the need to go to the Settings app and find the setting to enable that. You can check out five amazing features you can try on Windows Copilot right now.