Cortana

Microsoft's assistant, named after a Halo AI, retired for Copilot

Shut down
19902026

Cortana was Microsoft's voice assistant, named after the AI in Halo and voiced by the same actor, launched with Windows Phone 8.1 on 2 April 2014 and built into Windows 10 in 2015. It reached iOS, Android, the Xbox and a Harman Kardon speaker, then retreated as Alexa and Google Assistant took the home and Windows Phone died. The mobile apps closed in 2021, and in 2023 Microsoft ended support for Cortana in Windows in favour of Copilot.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2014
  2. 2 April 2014 Launch
    Cortana launches with Windows Phone 8.1

    Named and voiced after the Halo AI, with the editable Notebook.

  3. 2015
  4. 29 July 2015 Feature
    Built into Windows 10

    "Hey Cortana" on every new PC.

  5. 9 December 2015 Feature
    iOS and Android apps

    The cross-device pitch, without a phone platform of its own.

  6. 2017
  7. 22 October 2017 Feature
    The Harman Kardon Invoke

    A Cortana speaker against the Echo. It sells poorly.

  8. 2019
  9. 18 January 2019 Decline
    "A skill, not a competitor"

    Satya Nadella says Cortana will live inside other assistants.

  10. 2021
  11. 31 March 2021 Decline
    Mobile apps close everywhere

    The Invoke loses its assistant the same year.

  12. 2023
  13. 2 June 2023 Shutdown announced
    End of support is announced

    Windows Copilot and Bing Chat take over.

  14. August 2023 Shutdown
    Cortana is removed from Windows

    The standalone app is retired.

The site through time

Browse microsoft.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2023 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 2014–2023 Founded Built by the Bing and Windows Phone teams; moved into the Office organisation in 2018

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Cortana never got the phone platform it was built for after Windows Phone died, lost to Alexa and Google Assistant in the home, and was pulled from iOS and Android by March 2021. In June 2023 Microsoft announced that the standalone Cortana app in Windows would stop being supported from late 2023, pointing users to Windows Copilot and Bing Chat; the app was removed from Windows 11 in the autumn. A few remnants inside Outlook mobile and Teams Rooms followed it out.

Our analysis: Cortana was arguably the best of the assistants when it launched, with a "notebook" that explained what it knew about you and why. It lost because assistants live where people talk, and Microsoft had no phone and arrived late with a speaker. When large language models made the whole voice-assistant generation look like a dead end, Microsoft was the one company that could switch to a new brand overnight, and it did.

History [edit]

A notebook, not a butler

Microsoft introduced Cortana at its Build conference on 2 April 2014 as part of Windows Phone 8.1, its answer to Siri and Google Now. It took its name and, in the United States, its voice, Jen Taylor, from the AI character in Halo, a nod the Halo fans on the Windows Phone team had lobbied for. Its distinctive idea was the Notebook: a plain list of everything Cortana had learned about you, your interests, your places, your quiet hours, that you could edit or delete. Reviewers rated it at least the equal of its rivals, and it was one of the few things Windows Phone did that the iPhone did not.

Windows 10 in July 2015 put Cortana into the taskbar of every new PC, "Hey Cortana" arrived on the desktop, and versions for iOS and Android followed in December 2015 alongside Xbox One integration. Microsoft pitched it as the assistant that followed you across devices, and it announced a Cortana Skills Kit and a Harman Kardon Invoke speaker in 2017 to compete with the Echo.

Where people talk

The problem was where people actually spoke to assistants: on phones, where Windows Phone was collapsing, and in kitchens, where Amazon had a two-year head start. The Invoke sold poorly. In 2018 Microsoft and Amazon demonstrated Cortana and Alexa talking to each other, and by January 2019 Satya Nadella was saying Cortana would be a skill inside other assistants rather than a competitor. Microsoft moved it into the Office and productivity organisation, removed it from the Xbox dashboard, and closed the iOS and Android apps in most countries at the start of 2020 and everywhere by 31 March 2021. The Invoke was cut off the same year.

Copilot

The last version of Cortana was a chat window in Windows 10 and 11 that could set reminders and open apps. On 2 June 2023 Microsoft announced it would end support for the standalone Cortana app in Windows later that year, and pointed users to Windows Copilot, Bing Chat and voice access instead; the app was removed in the autumn of 2023. What survived was scattered: Cortana in Outlook mobile's "Play My Emails" and in Teams Rooms, both retired later. Jen Taylor's voice went back to Halo.

The domain today

microsoft.com is Microsoft's; its Cortana pages are now a support article titled "End of support for Cortana" that lists the replacements.

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Sources [edit]

  1. Cortana is Microsoft's answer to Siri and Google Now The Verge 2 April 2014 [archived]
  2. Microsoft has its own version of Siri, a voice assistant called Cortana Business Insider 2 April 2014 [archived]
  3. Microsoft shuts down Cortana on iOS and Android The Verge 1 April 2021 [archived]
  4. Cortana, once a flagship feature of Windows phones, is slowly being shut down Ars Technica 4 August 2023 [archived]
  5. End of support for Cortana Microsoft 2 June 2023 [archived]

Last verified: 15 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).