Competition in the virtual assistant market is the order of the day and no tech giant wants to be left out. Apple has Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Samsung Bixby and Facebook M; each of them with their strengths and weaknesses.
In an attempt to improve their assistants and strengthen positions, Amazon and Microsoft have reached an agreement so that Cortana and Alexa can communicate with each other and work together. To do this, both companies have been cooperating in secret. The objective: that both attendees can interact before the end of the year.
What does this collaboration mean for users?
Advantages for Cortana users
Alexa is available on Echo, Amazon's home device. But in addition, it is compatible with numerous applications and smart devices (refrigerators, thermostats, smart light bulbs...); and it offers an interesting peculiarity that makes it unique: it allows its users to buy on Amazon.
Once the communication between both assistants starts working, Cortana users can enjoy all the features of Alexa, just by saying: “Cortana, open Alexa” (Cortana, open Alexa), followed by the command they wish to give to the assistant.
Advantages for Alexa users
In turn, this collaboration means for Amazon that Alexa will suddenly reach a large part of homes around the world, since Cortana is installed by default on all Windows 10 PCs.
In addition, thanks to the cooperation of both assistants, Alexa users will be able to enjoy, among other things, great integration with Microsoft's Office 365 suite, just by saying “Alexa, open Cortana” (Alexa, open Cortana).
Echo from Amazon
Obviously, it is not the ideal user experience, as the user has to expressly specify which assistant their request is addressed to, but both companies already have in mind how to improve it so that the change of assistant is imperceptible to the user.
surprising news
The news has generated a huge surprise, in a sector in which each company usually invests millions to secretly develop innovations that allow their product to stand out from the rest.
On this occasion, however, Microsoft and Amazon have opted for cooperation, reaching an agreement that will quickly boost the functionalities of their respective assistants, clearly differentiating them from the rest.
The two companies reportedly began their collaboration in May 2016, when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared his idea with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during the CEO Summit, an annual event for business leaders held in Seattle.
Nadella liked the idea and teams from both companies began to collaborate.
For Bezos, collaboration between virtual assistants is the future, because it is the best option for the user.
Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon
Compatibility between devices, a necessity for the future
As more home appliances and devices become smart, compatibility between them will be critical. so that the user experience is satisfactory. Otherwise it would be chaos.
There are two possibilities:
- That the user acquires all the devices of the same family so that there are no communication problems between them, in the style of Apple's strategy in recent years. However, in this way, users will only be able to access the functionalities of said assistant, missing out on many other interesting options.
- That the different companies cooperate so that the assistants of their devices can communicate with each other, offering the best possible user experience.
Bezos bets on the latter option.
According to him, There will come a day when the virtual assistant of each device will be intelligent enough to know which assistant is in a position to best respond to the user's request. and you can redirect it automatically, without the need for the user to request it.
Sources:
Keep reading: