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Taking on Apple Siri and Google Assistant, Microsoft has started rolling out public preview of an integration between its virtual assistant Cortana and Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa.
Conversely, they will be able to access Cortana on Alexa-enabled smart speakers like the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Show.
"Customers who want to test out this new feature will be able to try it starting 15 August 15, Microsoft says. The integration will continue to roll out in the days ahead, so you may not immediately gain access," TechCrunch reported on Thursday.
Microsoft and Amazon performed a brief integration between the two intelligent assistants at the "Build 2018" developers' conference in Seattle in May.
According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, ensuring Cortana's availability 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 towards that goal," Nadella had said in 2017.
While Alexa will accept personal requests, Cortana will help with business needs. The integration works with the command: "Alexa, open Cortana."
Microsoft has also invited developers to create more integrated solutions for both the assistants and has launched a website to sign up for more information.
However, we are not sure how this cross-integration will help consumers (might confuse them instead), but Amazon could spread its wings beyond regular consumers this way.
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