It may not seem like so, but Microsoft continues to invest in its digital assistant. We don’t usually hear about what the software titan has lined up for Cortana, but we just did now.
At the Ignite 2020 conference.
These new additions are coming to the voice assistant on Teams, Outlook, and Windows 10. And while a few of these new features are broader rollout of existing capabilities, a substantial amount is what you can safely label as fresh additions.
For starters, there are actual updates for Cortana on Windows 10.
Beginning this month, she is going to start getting updates to support searching for documents and composing emails. This feature is limited to United States only for now, but expansion into other markets and regions is promised.
And then there is also a future update planned that will allow you to launch the app in the US and the UK by using the wake word. An update to streamline meeting prep is also coming next year.
We also have what is called the new Play My Email feature in Outlook that is now coming to users in Australia, Canada, the UK, and India in the coming months.
Additionally, Outlook on iOS users in the United States will soon have the ability to interact with their inbox without taking the phone out of their pocket. For example, they can play emails from a specific person, initiate a call with a sender, and do more.
This feature is coming this month.
On the enterprise side of things, Microsoft 365 Enterprise users will have their daily briefing email from Cortana feature generally available. This will be enhanced in the coming months to improve meeting prep, and will even integrate with Microsoft To Do.
Likewise, Cortana voice assistance on Teams enabled devices is becoming generally available in the US region this month, and will go live for users in Australia, Canada, and the UK soon.
Substantial lineup of additions for the under-fire digital voice assistant, one that goes to show that Microsoft has not given up on her completely.
