Microsoft discontinues Cortana app on Android and iOS

Microsoft’s Cortana app on Android and iOS will stop functioning from today as March 31 was its last day on the app stores. All your information on the app, like lists and reminders, will not be accessible from the mobile platform anymore. The company’s voice assistant application, however, will keep working on Windows 10, from where you can retrieve your lists.
Microsoft had decided to ditch the Cortana app earlier, in July 2020. The company had then said that it wanted to shift the focus of the AI voice assistant to the Microsoft 365 services.
There have been quite competent voice assistant competitors on both Android and iOS platforms in the form of Google Assistant and Apple Siri. While Google Assistant is the go-to voice assistant app for Android users, Apple users generally prefer Siri for all the voice-operable functions. As such, Cortana as a mobile app faced some stiff competition from both. Then there is Amazon Alexa to contend with too on the mobile platform. Owing to its poor reception on the mobile platform, it was just a matter of time before Microsoft began thinking of an alternative or ditching the app altogether. The Cortana mobile app came out in 2018.