Having long-played the least-loved mobile personal assistant, Microsoft’s Cortana can now finally fairly challenge its competitors Siri and Google Now having been made available on iOS and Android.
The decision to open it up to other operating systems was formally announced by the company today, but it has warned that users on Android and iOS won’t have the same level of scope as its Windows Phone variant due to integration issues.
One of these limitations is the ability to invoke Cortana hands-free by saying “Hey Cortana” as this requires special integration with the device’s microphone, which Microsoft doesn’t have on other companies’ devices.
According to Microsoft’s blog post on its future multi-device launch, Cortana will be used as a companion app between Android and iOS devices and a person’s PC once it has Windows 10 installed.
It can work as a personal organiser and shopping list organiser, and track your flight prior to heading to the airport.
It will then link with all the person’s devices to keep them up-to-date, much like Siri and Google Now.
Image of Cortana on a phone via Bhupinder Nayyar/Flickr
