Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana are coming soon to a smart device near you — together, with new integrated features that allow the digital assistants to talk to each other.
The two companies said the integration would be live for U.S. customers Wednesday, the first public launch for the joint service since the companies began testing it more than a year ago.
Alexa, which does everything from play music to buy items from Amazon on Echo speakers and other Alexa-enabled devices, will be able to summon Cortana to read emails or check calendar appointments from Microsoft Outlook. Alternately, Cortana will be able to ask Alexa to set the temperature of the room through an internet-connected thermostat and access many of the third-party skills other companies have built into Alexa.
The idea is to capitalize on each company’s strength — Amazon’s in consumer technology, and Microsoft’s in workplace software. The integration will bring more work-focused functions to Alexa through Cortana and general life capabilities to Cortana.