Microsoft and Amazon were supposed to play nice this past year and make their respective digital assistants available on each other’s platforms, allowing users to access Microsoft’s Cortana assistant on an Amazon Echo, or Alexa on any Windows 10 PC. The company said the cross-platform features would roll out by the end of 2017, but they have yet to make good on that deadline. (Thanks, Thurrott, for first spotting the missed timeline.)
Amazon and Microsoft have yet to roll out their smart assistant partnership
The New York Times reported in August that someone using an Alexa device will have to say “Alexa, open Cortana” to access Microsoft’s digital assistant, and someone using Cortana will have to say “Cortana, open Alexa” to talk to Amazon’s. Both companies seem to have created skills on each other’s platforms to enable the integration. The coming assistant harmony is surprising, especially given Amazon’s recent feuds with Google and Apple, but at least Amazon is working things out with Microsoft. Windows 10 users will first be able to access Alexa via Cortana on their PC, followed by Android and iOS.
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