Microsoft Cortana Loses Song Recognition Feature

Equally compared to AI smart assistants such every bit Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana is quite underappreciated. Cortana has restricted itself to Windows ten laptops and PCs, only has only recently started extending its support to smart speakers and thermostats as well. But, what if I told y'all that Cortana tin can no longer recognize music playing in your surroundings?

Yep, I'm not fifty-fifty kidding. Microsoft'south Cortana engineer has himself confirmed that the assistant'south music recognition functionality of Cortana has been shuttered. This ways you tin no longer question Cortana about the songs you hear playing around in your surroundings.

At present, if you open the Cortana app and try to use the vocal recognition feature that can be activated using the "musical note" icon then the simply reply y'all'll receive from the AI assistant is 'Vocal Unrecognized' and information technology's possibly the near disheartening bulletin you ever want to receive from an AI assistant.

The retirement of this important (and frequently used) functionality of Cortana is directly related to Groove Music. Latch on and listen carefully folks, this is as uncomplicated an explanation as it gets.

Microsoft has never been able to observe any success in the oh-so-cluttered music streaming space. The Redmond giant started out with Zune, which did attract some eyeballs, but information technology was soon retired in favor of Groove Music. However, if you like to stay updated with the latest happenings in the tech world, you already know that Groove Music has now besides been shuttered.

Earlier last year, Microsoft heavy-heartedly announced that Groove Music is going to shut downwards towards the terminate of 2017. The express number of Windows ten users who were even so on Groove Music were moved to the most-popular streaming service, Spotify. And then, Cortana'due south music recognition feature, if yous didn't know, was powered by Groove Music, which no longer has a music library to ability it. Thus, the feature has at present get unusable.

Hi John. What yous are seeing is expected. Due to the shutdown of the Groove Music service Cortana music recognition has besides been retired.

— Jason Deakins (@JasonDeakins) January 3, 2018

This sure is a major loss for Cortana users, especially on Windows 10, only there is no info on whether this feature will always make a re-appearance on Microsoft's AI assistant. What hurts almost is that Shazam is likewise no longer bachelor on Windows whatsoever more so, music lovers will have to turn to Android or iOS apps to keep using this useful feature.