Microsoft and Amazon Begin Public Rollout of First Alexa-Cortana Integrations (geekwire.com)

Starting today, Amazon and Microsoft will begin rolling out the first integrations between the digital assistants, allowing users to rouse Cortana on Echo devices and conjure Alexa on Windows 10 PCs and Harman Kardon Invoke speakers. From a report: "The goal is to have two integrated digital assistants who can carry out tasks across different dimensions of daily life -- at home or work, and on whatever device is most convenient," Microsoft's Jennifer Langston wrote in a blog post. "Currently, Cortana and Alexa can each be enabled as a skill on the other." Cortana users can ask Alexa to shop for items on Amazon, manage their Amazon orders and access many of Alexa's more than 45,000 skills. Alexa users will be able to get their hands on Cortana's top abilities, like calendar management and email integration.

Users first have to ask their Amazon or Microsoft digital assistant to open up the other in order to begin the setup. After completing several steps and account logins, Alexa and Cortana will be able to communicate. Amazon and Microsoft are encouraging users to give feedback on the experience via the Cortana and Alexa apps.

Comments

Re:Integration = sharing user's private data

[sinij]

Integration really means- sharing information about users between Microsoft and Amazon so that they can spy on you better.

Exactly. More so, Cortana is baked in into all recent Windows OS versions, to the point that it is not possible to fully disable this functionality.

What this integration really means is that Amazon is going to have the same level of unprecedented access to your Windows-based system as Microsoft. This is not limited to what you are voice-searching using Cortana, this includes all aspects of your OS operation, file system, and so on.