Microsoft to kill Cortana app in all countries excluding US; company plans to launch Surface Earbuds this spring

Shedding more insight to what they said earlier, Microsoft has recently confirmed that beyond January 31, 2020, the Cortana app on both iOS and Android will no longer be supported in other countries, aside from the US. Yes, USA has been excluded from the list as per the latest revelation.

The company had previously said that the Contata app will be discontinued in 8 countries (i.e. Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, and the U.K) and has also now added Japan to the list. The integration in the Microsoft Launcher on Android will be discontinued at the same time as well.

So why does Microsoft choose to continue the app’s support in the US?

Firstly, they say the main reason the app will not be discontinued yet in the United States, is so users of the Surface Headphones can do such things like updating firmware. Beyond that, there won’t be much functionality for the app.

Secondly, the app didn’t receive the expected traction outside the U.S. And lastly, because the company wished to continue experimenting, as has been stated by Andrew Shuman (the Cortana team lead).

All in all, users of the Surface Headphones in other countries such as the UK, Canada, China, etc. will have to use the Cortana app in Windows 10 once it is taken off from Android and iOS.

Moving ahead, Andrew also added that when their upcoming Surface Buds will be released in the spring season of 2020, there will be a new app released for it, aptly named Surface Audio, which will contain the same functionality as the current Cortana app and will be coming to platforms like Android, iOS, and Windows.

It is not known if the app will be released in the other countries that the Cortana app will be discontinued in.

We presume it will be, as it does seem a bit clunky to use just the Windows-based integration, especially on devices that may not have Bluetooth functionality (yes, there are still some devices that do not support Bluetooth out-of-box, especially those devices that may be in the loop to receive their upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 by that date).

Microsoft has also confirmed that previous devices that use the digital assistant will also be able to use the new Surface Audio app. Seeing as the Harmon Kardon Invoke speaker was only released in the US due to poor sales, that functionality will more than likely be saved for those users only.

Last, but certainly not least, while there isn’t a set date, the company has also revealed they plan to integrate the assistant into Microsoft Teams at some point next year.

Due credits for writing this story: Jeremy Bohrer

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