After missing their previous 2017 deadline, Microsoft and Amazon are still working on the much-anticipated integration between Cortana and Alexa. The Cortana team shared a quick update yesterday during the latest Windows Insider webcast, and it seems that making both digital assistants talk to each other is quite a challenge (via Thurrott.com).
“That work is actively in self-host, I think we wanna make sure it’s a great experience,” explained a Program Manager in the Cortana team. “Obviously, bringing together back and speech text across companies is a non trivial event with lots of excitement, but there is a bunch of people working on that,” she added. You can listen to the segment on Mixer at the 1h5min mark.
It’s great to know that the integration is still being actively developed, but the Cortana team didn’t share an ETA yesterday. In the meantime, Alexa is set to arrive on select Windows 10 PCs from Acer, HP and Lenovo in Q1 2018, exclusively in the US. Consumers will be able to use Amazon’s digital assistant to listen to music, read books, create reminders, and access thousands of Alexa skills. Hopefully, this can only encourage the Cortana team to make it the best digital assistant for Windows 10 users.
