Microsoft’s Cortana and Amazon’s Alexa could begin working much closer together according to a report from the New York Times. The two digital assistants have already shown signs of some cross-pollination this past year with Alexa adding support for Microsoft’s Outlook Calendars but the connection could be made much deeper with Cortana being completely accessible on an Alexa device and Alexa being made available via Cortana.
The assistants could apparently be switched by a simple voice phrase such as, “Cortana, open Alexa.” “The personality and expertise of each one will be such that if they interoperated, the user will get more out of it,” Satya Nadella said about the idea in an interview.
It certainly is an interesting idea and would be like having a team of assistants who specialize in different skills than one who is trying to do everything. What do you think about this potential collaboration? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below.
Update: Microsoft and Amazon have just made the integration official. On the company’s blog, Microsoft shared that the collaboration between Cortana and Alexa will go live “later this year” on Windows 10 PCs, followed by Android and iOS devices in the future. Cortana will also be accessible on Alexa-powered devices such as the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Show.
