Microsoft has officially discontinued its Cortana voice assistant for Windows 11, marking the end of an era when the tech giant tried to create a competitor to Apple’s Siri. The latest update to Cortana in the Microsoft Store caused the app to stop working on Windows 11, a message about obsoleteness appeared, informs Windows Latest.

Cortana was introduced in 2014 as Microsoft’s answer to Siri and debuted on desktop computers with Windows 10. While promoting its voice assistant, Microsoft even joked about Siri’s robotic language in advertisements. However, Cortana is now disabled, and judging by recent trends, the same can be expected of Siri, which will most likely be replaced by a more advanced AI assistant in the future.

Either way, the new Microsoft Store update rolling out to some Windows 11 users has effectively killed the standalone personal assistant app. When users try to open Cortana, they get a warning: “Cortana on Windows as a standalone program is deprecated.” The link to associate document, that further explains this decision, is provided.

According to a support document, Microsoft is shutting down the standalone app in favour of Windows Copilot, planning to integrate other AI-powered productivity features into it. The document states: “Starting in August 2023, we will no longer support Cortana on Windows as a standalone app.”

Although Cortana stopped working in Windows 11, it remains functional in Windows 10, which will continue to receive updates until October 2025. However, Microsoft plans to discontinue the program in Windows 10 within a few weeks, a source close to the company confirmed.

Microsoft has already removed Cortana from other platforms, such as the Microsoft Launcher for Android, but it will remain available in mobile apps such as Outlook, Teams, and Teams rooms. For those looking for a desktop assistant, Microsoft recommends Windows Copilot, which debuts with the Windows 11 23H2 update. The company is also testing third-party plugins for Windows Copilot and Bing to improve its experience.