Cortana apps on iOS and Android now warn about their upcoming demise

By Sean Endicott
published

Cortana will soon go away on iOS and Android devices, and the apps now warn people about the discontinuation.

Cortana Ios End
Cortana Ios End (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • The Cortana apps on iOS and Android will be discontinued on March 31, 2021.
  • The apps now show a warning about their upcoming discontinuation.
  • Microsoft has shifted Cortana towards productivity.

The Cortana app on mobile devices isn't long for this world. We already knew that the Cortana apps on iOS and Android will be discontinued on March 31, 2021, but now the apps are reminding people of it. Twitter user Rohit Yadav shared a screenshot of the Cortana app on Android warning about its upcoming discontinuation. We also see the warning on an iPhone.

See more

Microsoft details the upcoming discontinuation in a support document (opens in new tab):

As we announced in July, we will soon be ending support for the Cortana app on Android and iOS, as Cortana continues its evolution as a productivity assistant.As of March 31, 2021, the Cortana content you created–such as reminders and lists–will no longer function in the Cortana mobile app, but can still be accessed through Cortana in Windows. Also, Cortana reminders, lists, and tasks are automatically synced to the Microsoft To Do app, which you can download to your phone for free.After March 31, 2021, the Cortana mobile app on your phone will no longer be supported. 

Microsoft has shifted Cortana towards productivity, such as helping people get things done through Microsoft 365. When Microsoft announced the upcoming end of the Cortana apps on iOS and Android, the company also announced the end of support for Cortana on Harman Kardon Invoke speakers.

Our senior editor Zac Bowden explained why Microsoft needs to embrace Alexa and Google Assistant now that Cortana is "dead" on traditional devices.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

11 Comments
  • It's shown this since the beginning of the year. I saw it in January when I was setting up my Invokes again so they could get the update to remove Cortana.
  • Somewhere in an alternate universe the Cortana app on webOS is thriving.
  • I still use the Cortana App for Android as my assistant app for my phone, but will probably switch to Alexa by April. RIP...
  • Cortana future is on the hololens AR glasses
  • Microsoft killing one of its greatest ideas, again, for not having a decent solution.
  • Were digital assistants Microsoft's idea? They were really late to the party if so.
  • I hate that they kill it before even trying to make it something.. I used cortana all the time but i struggled becuse ms just allowed some to use ( County's ) it and not everyone and that's why it died... No company want to support someting not everyone can enjoy and just look at alexa its not in every language but they allow her to be used anyway and people who use it knows it.
  • Alexa started only with Prime members and a handful of countries. It was a few years when it became popular before it rolled out widely. Cortana never become popular, so rolling it out to new markets would have been a waste of money. You don't double down on failure.
  • These apps still exist?
  • In other words, Cortana is useless. What started out as the cutting edge of ACTUALLY useful digital assistants has become completely irrelevant in a sea of completely irrelevant digital assistants. Nobody does this right. Nobody.
  • If the messages don't talk about Cortana entering a state of rampancy then I don't care.