Amazon and Microsoft have agreed to allow their voice-controlled digital assistants - called respectively Alexa and Cortana - to speak with each other. This means customers with a Windows device running Cortana will be able to control their Amazon Echo or other devices running Alexa, and vice versa.
Alexa customers will be able to access Cortana’s features like calendars and email with voice commands. Similarly, Cortana customers can ask Alexa to control their smart home devices, shop on Amazon.com or interact with many of the more than 20,000 Alexa skills built by third-party developers. The integration is expected to be available from "later this year", the companies said.
“Ensuring Cortana is available for our customers everywhere and across any device is a key priority for us,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Bringing Cortana’s knowledge, Office 365 integration, commitments, and reminders to Alexa is a great step toward that goal.”“The world is big and so multifaceted. There are going to be multiple successful intelligent agents, each with access to different sets of data and with different specialized skill areas. Together, their strengths will complement each other and provide customers with a richer and even more helpful experience,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon. “It’s great for Echo owners to get easy access to Cortana.”
Alexa and Cortana will begin talking to each other later this year.
