Microsoft's Cortana Officially Announced for iOS & Android

[dgstorm]

This morning, Microsoft officially announced Cortana will be coming to Android and iOS. It's a brilliant move by Microsoft in a string of brilliant moves since the leadership changeover occurred. The personal digital assistant will obviously be in direct competition to both Siri and Google Now. The main difference will now be that you can get Cortana as an app for any mobile device.

Microsoft didn't share a specific time-frame for release, but left it with a vague "later this year." Cortana offer several of the same features you can find on Google Now or Siri, including contextually-aware reminders, routing and mapping, weather and traffic, sports scores, and more. When she launches, not all of Cortana's Windows 10 features will be immediately available for Android and iOS. This includes features toggling settings, opening apps or using the "Hey Cortana" hands-free options.

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Windows 10 itself will include a free "Phone Companion" app which will do various things, including syncing up your devices with your PC and helping you install Cortana on other devices. You can check out more regarding the Windows 10 companion app in the video above.

For more info, here's Microsoft's full presser: Your Windows 10 PC will love all the devices you own

 

[Pinkpoison]

Interesting.

 

[scifan57]

From what I understand you require a PC with Windows 10 to take advantage of all the features Cortana has to offer. We'll have to wait and see how it compares to Siri under the same conditions.

 

[dgstorm]

Yep... both statements are spot on @scifan57.

 

[bear7962]

This sounds like a big push for Microsoft as they will be offer fre Windows 10 upgrades for a year, I think. Very interesting.