Microsoft has released Cortana Skill Kit in public review at the Build 2017 conference. Developers will be able to build skills for Cortana by creating a bot and publishing it to the new Cortana channel of the Bot Framework. This is available across Windows 10, Android, iOS and the new Cortana-powered Harman Kardon Invoke speaker.
Developers can start with existing code to build skills that work across Windows 10, Android, and iOS as well as standalone devices based on the Cortana Devices SDK. Cortana was first made available for personal computers with the release of Windows 10 in July 2015. Microsoft had shared in March that the digital assistant is used by 145 million monthly active users.
The Cortana Skills Kit will allow developers to integrate their web services as skills and re-purpose code from their existing Alexa skills to create Cortana skills. They can personalize their users’ experiences by leveraging Cortana’s understanding of users’ preferences and context, based on user permissions. The Cortana Skills kit is currently available in the U.S. only.