Amazon Alexa devices to get Skype calling later this year

Those who were waiting for a new reason in favor of purchasing an Alexa-driven device can add Skype calling to the list, although it might take a month or two until this feature finally becomes available.

As recently revealed by Microsoft officials, Amazon Alexa users will gain the ability to place outgoing Skype video and voice calls, accept incoming calls, and also to make SkypeOut calls to most phone numbers all around the world. Obviously, these actions will be done using voice commands like "Alexa, call Sandy on Skype" or "Alexa, answer."

According to an official statement, "Amazon, Skype, and Microsoft have had a collaborative relationship to bring customers new experiences such as Skype and Bing on Fire tablets, Alexa on Xbox, as well as integrating Alexa and Cortana. Allowing customers to link Skype with Alexa was a natural extension of our work together and we can't wait for customers to try it out."

The worst part of the story — at least for Cortana fans — is that Microsoft officials also said that Cortana is being repositioned to an "assistance aide" role, but did not reveal any details. Anyway, this probably means that Microsoft is getting out of the battle with the AI-driven virtual assistants such as Apple Siri or Google Assistant and is most likely planning to keep Cortana around for a while before eventually pulling the plug.

Do you think there is still room for Cortana in today's tech landscape? Let us know in the comments below.