After several delays, the integration between Alexa – Amazon Echo’s virtual assistant and Cortana and Microsoft’s virtual assistant was announced. Let us remember that both companies announced the integration of their assistants just over a year ago, but for various reasons, they have not yet done so.
Microsoft has announced in its blog that the preview of the Amazon+Cortana union in the USA is available.
The main objective of this alliance is to take advantage of both companies’ equipment. For those who use Alexa devices to perform the “Alexa, open Cortana” function, while someone with Cortana can do the opposite, “Cortana, open Alexa”, both on Amazon devices like Amazon Echo, as well as on Windows computers10.
With the keywords “Open Cortana” in Alexa, a portal in the Cortana service opens. If you say “Hey Cortana, Open Alexa” on your PC, you can access the capabilities of Alexa on your PC.
“Cortana users can have Alexa on Amazon.com, manage their Amazon orders and access many of Alexa’s capabilities by asking Cortana to open Alexa, just as Alexa users can access Cortana’s global knowledge and useful productivity features such as calendar management and location-based reminders by simply asking Alexa to open Cortana,” said the Microsoft spokesman.
Please note that this is a beta version, which is still under development. Executives say that this start is to get feedback from users.
Only a limited number of functions are available during the preview period. Some features, such as music streaming and alarm settings, are not yet available, but depending on feedback, these features will be added in the future.
The parties also announced that both iOS and Android will receive this integration without bringing forward a release date.
If you still don’t know what this union of Alexa and Cortana will be like, we leave you the demo presented by Microsoft last May.