Microsoft is Kicking Cortana Off Xbox One, Too

Too Little Too Late, Microsoft Voices Support for Cortana

Microsoft revealed this week that it will remove Cortana from Xbox One and will evolve how voice commands work on the console.

“We are moving away from on-console experiences to cloud-based assistant experiences,” Microsoft’s Bradley Rossetti revealed. “This means you can no longer talk to Cortana via your headset. However, you can use the Xbox Skill for Cortana via the Cortana app on iOS, Android, and Windows or via Harmon Kardon Invoke speaker to power your Xbox One, adjust volume, launch games and apps, capture screenshots, and more —just as you can do with Alexa-enabled devices today.”

Microsoft began scaling back its support for Cortana in its core consumer platforms last year, and it specifically started adding support for third-party personal digital assistants like Amazon Alexa to both Windows and Xbox. With this change, Cortana will be no more integrated with Xbox than Alexa is, and I assume that, given recent changes in Windows 10, that will happen on the PC desktop as well.

Microsoft says that it will continue improving and evolving the Xbox Skill “across supported digital assistants—that is, Alexa and Cortana today, and probably Google Assistant, Siri, and even Bixby in the future. And it is working on a solution that will bring dictation back to the virtual keyboard on Xbox One.

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Conversation 29 comments

  • Tony Barrett

    25 July, 2019 - 5:57 am

    <p>As suspected, Cortana, being an abject failure on the desktop for MS, is being moved to the cloud, and will be integrated into Microsoft's subscription services, which are mainly designed for enterprises. This is no surprise. It's already being de-coupled from Win10, and will eventually only be available as an optional UWP app from the store.</p><p>Everyone knew this was coming. Cortana had no place on the desktop and was pretty much pointless. Now it's being removed from Xbox too. MS spin it and won't be honest, but we all know the real reason.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      25 July, 2019 - 6:06 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444874">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>Can't wait for when you'll install windows 20h1 and you'll find cortana UWP waiting for you, with regular updates from the STORE</p>

      • Greg Green

        25 July, 2019 - 9:01 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444876">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>That’ll be an improvement. Rather than spending time hiding and limiting Cortana we’ll just not install it. The savings will be much appreciated.</p>

        • dontbe evil

          25 July, 2019 - 9:07 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#444916">In reply to Greg Green:</a></em></blockquote><p>how do you plan to do this, if will come already preinstalled? and probably without an official way to uninstall?</p>

          • dontbe evil

            26 July, 2019 - 5:15 am

            <blockquote><em><a href="#444918">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>all the people that downvoted, can you kindly provide some facts? … oh wait, you can't</p>

  • codymesh

    25 July, 2019 - 6:19 am

    <p>It's strange how all these assistants don't quite fit on anywhere except for on the phone and on smart speakers. I always thought it was natural to want a voice assistant everywhere including the pc and xbox</p>

    • irfaanwahid

      25 July, 2019 - 8:58 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444879">In reply to codymesh:</a></em></blockquote><p>I feel, the real place for Voice assistance are on Appliance like devices, eg smart speakers, cars.</p><p><br></p><p>I had Cortana on my Windows Phone and Siri on my current iPhone 10, but I hardly use these assistance.</p>

      • skane2600

        25 July, 2019 - 1:13 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444915">In reply to irfaanwahid:</a></em></blockquote><p>I consider most applications to be gimmicky since you can easily control appliances the old-fashioned way. On the other hand Cortana on the Windows phone provided a capability there was no other way to achieve – answering text messages while driving with your voice in a completely hands-free manner. So, of course, they killed it.</p>

  • harmjr

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2019 - 8:44 am

    <p>I hope for the day we can install each assistant from the store.</p><p>And Browser, chat app etc.</p><p><br></p><p>Some times letting users seek the program instead of force feeding them broccoli is the better way. </p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2019 - 8:48 am

    <p>Well, I'm not surprised as I never really used "Cortana" on the XBOX. We do use voice commands via the Kintect a lot like "XBOX On, Pause / Play, Volume Up." So, I'm interested in seeing how it will evolve. </p>

  • wunderbar

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2019 - 9:20 am

    <p>I'm just here to say how much I appreciate the image on this article. It made me smile.</p>

  • maktaba

    25 July, 2019 - 9:28 am

    <p style="direction: ltr;">I like the article picture. LOL.</p>

  • skane2600

    25 July, 2019 - 10:42 am

    <p>These sort of steps collectively are an unofficial abandonment of the One Windows concept IMO (not that it was ever a good idea in the first place).</p>

  • ReformedCtrlZ

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2019 - 10:51 am

    <p>I'm just hoping for the day when I can give voice commands to my Xbox via my Google Home.. I don't need crazy integration, just the ability to turn it on/off and adjust the volume would be nice.</p>

    • earlster

      Premium Member
      25 July, 2019 - 11:48 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444951">In reply to ReformedCtrlZ:</a></em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><em>You should be able to do this via a Logitech Harmony Hub and it's google home support. Might need IFTTT, too. </em></blockquote><blockquote><em>I'm not a google home user, but I use a HK Cortana speaker and IFTTT to send the 'Watch TV' and related commands to my Harmony Hub, which then turns on the TV, Audio Receiver and wakes up the Roku. Works like a charm.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • michaelpatricehuber

        Premium Member
        25 July, 2019 - 12:26 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444969">In reply to earlster:</a></em></blockquote><p>That’s exactly my setup (Google Home + Harmony). Works well. For basics, no need for IFTTT </p>

  • T182

    25 July, 2019 - 11:23 am

    <p>I had turned Cortana off about a year ago.. she kept popping up in the middle of movies and games without being called upon. The only reason that I have the Kinect still connected is that my kids love to talk to their grandparents on Skype with it.</p><p><br></p><p>How many users have an Xbox with a Kinect and still use it?</p>

  • chaad_losan

    25 July, 2019 - 1:07 pm

    <p>Bastards! I use cortana to control my xbox all the time.</p>

  • tboggs13

    25 July, 2019 - 1:08 pm

    <p>The frustrating thing for me is that Cortana was a step backwards from the Xbox voice commands. The apps supported them and was a generally positive experience for me. I would control most of my media by voice. Then they replaced it with Cortana and much of the functionality was gone and they have never fully recovered. Plus they killed the Xbox Kinect, so there were very few ways to interact with it. This is the one place they had a beast of a machine in peoples living room that could have shown off Cortana and they nuetered it at roll out. They should have replaced the Kinect witha Kinect Lite that was just a webcam and microphone array, played up the video conferencing capabilities and smart assistant. But no.</p>

  • xpxp2002

    25 July, 2019 - 2:12 pm

    <p>But what does this mean for voice commands using Kinect?</p>

    • waethorn

      25 July, 2019 - 4:21 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#445026">In reply to xpxp2002:</a></em></blockquote><p>LOL. Nobody uses Kinect.</p>

  • OwenM

    Premium Member
    25 July, 2019 - 6:59 pm

    <p>I had entirely forgotten it was even on Xbox in the first place</p>

  • IanYates82

    Premium Member
    26 July, 2019 - 7:20 am

    <p>Would be nice to see google get involved here, but I suspect that won't happen given the stadia competition </p>

  • PeteB

    26 July, 2019 - 9:24 am

    <p>Good riddance. Easily the most braindead "assistant" of all of them.</p>

  • Mike Brady

    26 July, 2019 - 9:54 am

    <p>On my Android phone when I ask Google Assistant or Alexa, "How's my drive to work?" I get the expected drive time to the office.</p><p><br></p><p>When I ask Cortana, it shows me links to Onedrive.</p>

  • chriswong13

    Premium Member
    28 July, 2019 - 8:21 am

    <p>Well, I think this probably signals an app'ified version of Cortana is probably coming to Xbox similar to what will happen on PC…</p>

  • akamystic

    30 July, 2019 - 12:58 pm

    <p>Cortana was a <a href="https://yogabicep.com/sadhguru-quotes/&quot; target="_blank">good</a></p>

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