Cortana has had a mixed start in 2018. Microsoft"s premier digital assistant has seemingly stayed stagnant for a while, but stories such as Cortana-Alexa integration project missing its deadline and the assistant being removed from the Dynamics 365 have raised doubts regarding the future of the service.
The company, however, assures investors and customers that the digital assistant is here to stay. Perhaps just to calm their nerves, the corporation has revealed that Cortana will be coming to several devices throughout 2018. The Redmond giant is making it "easier" for OEMs to adopt the assistant on their devices via Cortana Devices SDK. The company noted the Cortana-powered JCI Thermostat unveiled a few days ago as an example, which leverages the development kit.
The OEMs investing in Cortana throughout 2018 include Synaptics, Qualcomm, Allwinner, and TONLY. These companies will create "reference designs for new Cortana experiences". Developers, too, can leverage and/or build Cortana skills and devices for their designs.
The company states:
"With the support of both existing and new partnerships, we"re continuing to bring Cortana to even more places in the office, at home and on the go. Regardless of the device or context, our goal is to put Cortana everywhere you need assistance, whether that is on your PC, phone, Xbox, mixed reality headsets, intelligent home speakers, thermostats and even more in the future. You"ll continue to see Cortana integrated on your favorite devices and services throughout the year to come."
While the announcement of new devices does instill a sense of confidence in the customers, it must be noted that Microsoft did not really divulge any other details about the said devices. For now, it seems that the digital assistant is safe.
Source: Windows Blogs