There’s been an exciting announcement that will interest anyone paying attention the rise of the virtual assistant devices. Amazon and Microsoft are set to join forces, working together so each one is able to access the other. The move is not surprising considering that they are working towards making their tools more accessible by sharing them on other platforms such as Android and iOS.

Users of the virtual assistant devices will be able to ask Alexa to Open Cortana, and vice versa. This is great news for everyone as both virtual assistants are going to benefit greatly from the move. Users of Alexa will benefit from using the features that work well on Cortana such as reading emails, adding information to your calendar and reminders. Cortana users will benefit from being able to control their Smart home features, place orders on Amazon and use any of the skills they have enabled on Alexa.

Alexa will certainly benefit from the web search capabilities that Cortana provides its users. Now Alexa users will be able to ask many more questions and find out answers to voice search enquires more efficiently, an area where Alexa has been lacking for some time. This will provide Amazon with a virtual assistant that is able to keep up with Google Home.

Virtual Assistant Devices and SEO

Analysts have predicted that there will be 30million virtual assistant devices in homes in the US by the end of 2017. These gadgets are also hugely popular in the UK, worldwide sales of these devices are predicted to have reached over 75 billion by 2025.

Are you working on incorporating voice search into your search engine optimisation? There’s no escaping these smart devices that are designed to make life easier for their users. Read our article on how to optimise SEO strategies for voice search for our latest tips and advice.