Ask Paul: July 26 (Premium)

We’re in the third and final day of our annual European Heat Wave experience. So here’s a new edition of Ask Paul to kick off a cooler weekend.
Cortana questions
will asks:

With the news this week that Xbox was removing Cortana from the Xbox, but news from a couple weeks ago that Microsoft was going to be creating a standalone app for Cortana on Windows, I am not sure I understand what Microsoft's long terms plans are for Cortana.

You are not alone.

Personally over the past couple of months I have been seeing more and more emails from Cortana in my Office 365 account about things I should follow up on. If Cortana is going away why does it seem to be showing up in other areas? I guess my question is, and since you are better at reading the tea leaves of Microsoft than I am, what is going on with Cortana?

I’m not sure my opinion is any more valid than your yours, but my take on this is that Cortana has suffered from a brutal combination of external factors (Microsoft losing mobile) and internal ambivalence, leading to its current situation. The course correction on Cortana in Windows and Xbox makes sense: This is a technology that few people will use in those environments and, conversely, it’s hamstrung by being integrated into a platform that is updated infrequently. As a standalone app, Cortana can be updated more frequently.

But your question hints at two things about Cortana, and about voice control in Microsoft’s platforms, that I think are very important.

First, Cortana can succeed where it makes sense, and your mention of Office 365 is a great example of how Cortana, as a back-end service, does make sense today. (Google has a similar AI-like feature in Gmail that asks you whether you want to follow-up on email from the past that seem to warrant that kind of attention.) And second, Microsoft opening up its platforms to different assistants is in keeping with how the company operates these days, and it is very customer-friendly. Since most Microsoft customers are using other assistants, why not open up Windows and Xbox to support them?

Microsoft clearly understands that Cortana as a front-facing competitor to Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Siri is a non-starter. But it’s a good brand and I think it will continue as a back-end service for Microsoft and third-party products and services. As for the standalone apps on Windows and mobile, we’ll see. But I don’t think those will succeed because Cortana is an ingredient in other things one does, and is not a destination. For most people, anyway.
Animals and home swaps
T182 asks:

What did you do with your cat and dog while on your home swap?

We’ve had cats every year that we’ve done a home swap, and with only one exception---last year, because one of the other family’s kids was allergic---the people who stay in our house have taken care of them. This makes sense: It’s usually a family with kids and the pets are part of the expe...