In another turn of events, Microsoft is gearing up to introduce Bing’s voice mode to Edge on its users’ desktops. In a blog post on Bing, Microsoft announced the arrival of this feature. It took note of the fact that many users prefer to use voice inputs for chat on mobile. Keeping the same in mind, the company is introducing voice mode for desktop, where users can click on the microphone icon in their Bing chat box. According to the blog post, the feature currently supports English, French, German, Japanese, and Mandarin. It was noted that more languages will soon be added to the list.
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This feature is being introduced amid reports that Microsoft will discontinue Cortana on Windows later this year. As the tech giant continues to build upon AI-powered tools, it looks like Cortana might have outlived itself. During Microsoft’s Build Conference in the month of May, it announced the introduction of a new Windows Copilot tool that is meant to live in the user’s taskbar and provide help in doing pretty much anything and more. Its activities range from summarising any content to adjusting settings and much more.
Microsoft brought out Cortana first in 2015 with Windows 10. It allowed the users to set reminders, ask questions with voice commands, and even open up any desired app. However, over the years, Microsoft has been pushing Cortana out of Windows. With the introduction of Windows 11, it completely lost its prominence and did not even feature in the first boot experience. Later, in 2020, Microsoft closed the Cortana app on both iOS and Android. The company further ended support for its Surface headphones and other devices as well.
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Though it is still uncertain when the company will completely phase out Cortana from Windows, it is certain that the “Bing chatbot” and the “Microsoft 365 copilot” are being prioritised by the company. The company asserted, however, that Cortana will continue to be present with Outlook mobile, Microsoft Teams mobile, Teams display, and Teams rooms, but with the stream of new features, it is quite questionable if the company will continue with its support.
Bing’s blogpost has asserted that Bing Chat’s new feature will support text-to-speech answers. The chatbot will respond to the users in its own voice.
