Microsoft Officially Launches Cortana on Android and iOS

[dgstorm]

Microsoft has been teasing us with "beta" versions of Cortana for both Android and iOS for a while. For folks wanting to try out the Redmond-forged digital assistant, the teasing is over for the first official version. Microsoft just announced the availability of Cortana for both Android and iOS. You can pick it up for FREE on either the Google Play Store or Apple's iTunes.

Microsoft also shared that Cortana will actually be integrated into the Cyanogen OS-powered OnePlus One some time in December (with the 12.1.1 Cyanogen update). Keep in mind that Cortana on anything but Microsoft will be pretty "stripped down," (try not to visualize that too much). It will include features like track reminders and notifications for flights and packages across all platforms. You will also be able to manually ask Cortana questions on all the platforms.

Other specific features will be different from platform to platform. For example, on iOS you will NOT be able to use the "Hey Cortana" voice command features, but that will work on Android and Cyanogen. The problem is that Apple is not willing to open up iOS enough to make that feasible.

Cortana apps will initially show up in US and China at launch, but will eventually come to other areas of the globe. Cortana will require your device to run iOS 8 (or above), or Android 4.1.2 (or above).

Here are links if you want to check it out:

• Google Play Store
• Apple's iTunes

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Meh...

 

[kixfan]

Siri for Microsoft....I agree...meh...

 

[Mustang02]

The beta was horrible. As much as I want Cortana to tell me what to do, I can't install this ever again.

 

[Narsil]

I prefer to keep my data mining pipelines to a minimum.

 

[Vepaot]

Oh that's cool. Cortanna is multi platform, but the game she comes from, Halo, is still only on Xbox.

 

[Miller6386]

I am hoping to see some good feed back on this... I am thinking of trying it out this weekend.

 

[Mustang02]

Oh that's cool. Cortanna is multi platform, but the game she comes from, Halo, is still only on Xbox.

Halo will always be xbox or windows. Microsoft own the licensing. Just like Verizon owns the "Droid" brand.

 

[Vepaot]

Halo will always be xbox or windows. Microsoft own the licensing. Just like Verizon owns the "Droid" brand.

It was a joke...

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Hey, they're making apps for android even though they'd like people to use Windows Phones. There could be a slight possibility that they'd release a game like Halo for other consoles and rake in the dough...

 

[Mustang02]

Hey, they're making apps for android even though they'd like people to use Windows Phones. There could be a slight possibility that they'd release a game like Halo for other consoles and rake in the dough...

If they were smart they would drop it for ps4.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

With cross-platform multi-player. That would be epic.

 

[Vepaot]

I'd kill for Combat Evolved: Anniversary on PC. Maybe the entire Master Chief collection because the redesigned Halo 2 seemed pretty cool as well. Other than that? Meh. I didn't care for 3 and I feel like the Chief's story shouldn't have continued into 4. But that's just me.

 

[kodiak799]

I wish they'd focus on getting it to work better on Windows, first.

Apparently, the mic really sucks on most pc's and Cortana might as well not recognize what language you're speaking.