Microsoft says Skype is coming to Amazon Alexa devices later this year, letting Alexa users make outgoing voice and video calls, accept incoming calls, and more
Microsoft and Amazon are working together to bring Skype calling to Alexa-powered devices, which brings into question, again, where Microsoft is going with Cortana.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second act of the Microsoft–Amazon assistant détente. The two companies first agreed in 2017 to let each assistant summon the other (Alexa summoning Cortana and vice versa), then began actually rolling out that cross-invocation in August 2018 (asking either assistant to "open" the other). Now Microsoft is putting an actual workload — Skype calling — onto Amazon's hardware rather than just swapping assistant front-ends.
First-order effects
- Alexa device owners gain outgoing voice and video calls plus incoming call acceptance through Skype, turning Echo-class speakers into communication endpoints without new hardware.
- Microsoft gets Skype distribution on Amazon's installed base of speakers and displays, reaching rooms where Skype has no native app presence today.
Second-order effects
- The deeper the Skype-on-Alexa integration goes, the harder the question ZDNet raises about Cortana becomes: Microsoft is investing in a rival assistant's surface while its own assistant remains a feature inside Windows and the Alexa handshake.
- Amazon benefits asymmetrically — every Microsoft service that lands on Alexa makes its platform stickier against Google's assistant ecosystem, which has no equivalent Microsoft services deal.
Third-order effects
- If services keep riding whichever assistant owns the room, the smart-speaker market consolidates into a few hardware platforms with interchangeable software layers — assistant identity matters less than who controls the microphone.
- It also points toward assistants as neutral pipes for communications traffic generally, a direction Amazon was already probing when sources reported it was testing Alexa devices that make phone calls and act as intercoms.
The trend: Voice assistants are shifting from walled-garden identity plays toward interoperable platforms, with third-party services like Skype plugging into whichever assistant already sits in the living room.