Cortana officially arrives on iPhone and Android

The voice assistant of Windows, both in the desktop and mobile, also landed on competing platforms. At the moment, it is exclusive for certain countries.

After several months of beta testing the virtual assistant of Redmond it is also available on mobile platforms of competition. Cortana finally debuts on the App Store and Google Play, the store respectively of iOS and Android. The software will also be integrated in a capillary within OnePlus One with Cyanogen OS in the next few days of December through v12.1.1 update.

The virtual server functionality will vary depending on the platform used. At the most basic level allows you to manage reminders and notifications as those relating to air travel and the tracking of shipments, and will answer some questions voice or text using the database of services offered on Bing. Android Assistant can be invoked with the hotword ” Hey, Cortana ” pronounced within the app or on the home screen.

It is a feature that requires very specific APIs that Apple does not release to third-party developers; It will be unlikely to see this feature in the iPhone. With upcoming Cyanogen OS Cortana it will be pre-installed and will allow access to voice search capability even deeper. ” Hey, Cortana ” can be pronounced anywhere and will have access to some terminal settings.

For example, allow you to change the network settings, turn off the smartphone, set the silent mode. However, it will not reach the level of integration of Cortana on Windows Phone, in which for example can also open or close applications. Microsoft aims then again on the multi-platform as it did with Skype, Office or OneDrive: Cortana becomes the only voice assistant to be available on all three major ecosystems Mobile.

Assistant Microsoft is unfortunately only available in the US and China at launch, as has happened in the Windows environment. To work correctly you need to use a device with iOS or Android 4.1.2 8.