After its formal announcement in May and an unplanned leak in mid-July, Cortana officially arrives on Android. Microsoft’s “virtual assistant” still needs to smooth out a few rough edges, and regional support remains limited, but it’s excellent news that this valuable resource in Windows 10 and Windows Phone is expanding its horizons.
A Popular Assistant on Windows 10
If we trust the feedback from the web, most users are quite comfortable with Windows 10, and the most popular feature in the brand-new operating system is none other than Cortana. Master Chief’s companion has managed to go beyond video games and science fiction to become the virtual assistant of millions of users, something relatively unprecedented among desktop systems. While Cortana’s operation deserves its own chapter due to its need to collect and process user data, I must say that it does its job quite well. Weather, schedules, unit and currency conversions, sending messages, and news are some of the things within its capabilities, and the list keeps growing with each update. Of course, there’s another very important detail: Microsoft plans to bring Cortana to other platforms. The adventure begins with its version for Android.
What’s Missing in the Android Beta
That’s right: the official announcement was in May, and its first build managed to leak in mid-July, but yesterday, Microsoft opened the public beta of Cortana for Android. The general operation is very close to what we find in Windows 10 and Windows Phone, but there are several points to keep in mind. The first is that Cortana for Android does not yet support activating it with your voice, as it does in Windows 10 using “Hello Cortana” or “Hey Cortana” if it’s the English version. Another command it still cannot carry out is the direct launching of apps, but reminders, web searches, flight information, and calendar entries are already part of its repertoire.
Requirements and Availability
Finally, Cortana requires a device compatible with Android 4.0 or higher, and it is limited to the United States, but if you set your device to English and access the store via a VPN... I guess it would be possible to experiment a bit. Anyway, there’s no need to worry. Microsoft has already confirmed that Cortana will be available in other markets very soon, something that must also materialize in Windows 10.
