14 DAY TRIAL // We already know that Microsoft wants to make its digital assistant Cortana a productivity companion, and a recent set of improvements that the company announced confirmed this is the direction it’s willing to go for moving forward.
Microsoft says Cortana is evolving from a general digital assistant to a personal productivity assistant in Microsoft 365 apps, and this new concept requires a series of changes, including undocking the app from the taskbar.
“To give you an improved companion experience that’s more seamless with your workflows, we’ve undocked the app from the taskbar, so now you can move or re-size Cortana like any other app,” the Windows Insider team announced this week.
Additionally, Cortana for Windows insiders now comes with improved skills for email, calendar, and Windows. You can use the digital assistant to open apps and adjust Windows settings, such as changing brightness. Additionally, it can create and query meetings and emails.
Cortana mobile app going dark
On the other hand, the option to connect accounts is no longer available in Cortana.
“We’ve removed Cortana support for ‘connect accounts,’ so now your work and personal accounts are two separate experiences based on whichever account you sign in with. If you sign in with a Microsoft Account, you’ll interact with your personal information. If you sign in with a work or school account, Cortana will work with that one,” Microsoft says.
For the time being, these improvements are only available for the United States and devices where the en-us language is configured, but Microsoft promises to launch them in other languages and regions shortly.
However, a recent announcement revealed more changes coming to Cortana on the mobile front as well, with Microsoft removing the digital assistant app from Android and iOS in the majority of markets, excluding the United States.