Wow! Just today we said this was a fast moving industry, with Amazon’s multi-room music announcement. Less than a few hours later Microsoft made this announcement.
You can buy Amazon Echo products from Amazon directly for under £50.
Cortana, Microsofts yet to become popular, voice assistant has created a world first integration between Cortana and Alexa!
The collaboration will be available later this year and will allow users to access Alexa via Microsoft Cortana. Likewise you will also be able to access Cortana via Alexa-enabled devices.
Microsoft commented
“Ensuring Cortana is available for our customers everywhere and across any device is a key priority for us. Bringing Cortana’s knowledge, Office 365 integration, commitments and reminders to Alexa is a great step toward that goal.”
Once enabled Microsoft Cortana users will be able to for example shop on Amazon by simply asking Cortana to open Alexa, as well as use any enabled Alexa Skill. Alexa users will be able to, for example, access Cortana’s Office 365 diary.
This is a very positive step and something we didn’t see coming!
It seems the smart home market is really evolving, the separations disappearing and the biggest winner is the user. Next move to Apple let’s see if Siri decides to make friends..
PS. You can buy Amazon Echo products from Amazon directly for under £50.