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It’s been a while since we last heard rumors of Microsoft’s Cortana coming to Android. Way back in June of 2014 a manager from the Windows Phone team talked about the possibility of Cortana coming to other platforms. Now we’re hearing from Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research, that they are planning a bigger roll-out for Cortana later this year.
Microsoft is currently planning to bring Cortana to the desktop in Windows 10, which could be the perfectly opportunity to launch on Android and iOS as well. You might be thinking “why would Microsoft bring one of the best features of Windows Phone to competing platforms?” The new Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella is focused on getting more people using Microsoft services. Just look at all the apps they already have in the Play Store.
The big question for most Android users will be “why should I use Cortana?” Microsoft will have a tough job convincing users to switch away from the tightly integrated and powerful Google Now. When Cortana originally launched in beta 0n Windows Phone 8.1 we put it up against Google Now. A lot has changed since then, but it’s still a good look at the two services side-by-side.
Will you give Cortana a shot when it comes to Android?
kind of interested in trying it out….anythings gotta be better than Siri but is it better than googles’??
I can’t imagine it being better than Googles, but I’ll be interesting to play with… And then probably uninstall after 2 minutes.
well said haha
Siri and Cortana can both tap into all your accounts while Google is limited to strictly your Google account.
I fail to see how Google Now is better than either of those, considering the limitations.
after playin on my wifes phone, Siri is pretty awful. I get that it taps into more information but the lack of understanding when talking to it just leaves a lot to be desired. We were talking to both of our phones trying to do random things and my Nexus 6 was picking up on more that we were asking. Siri would just not do anything if it does not understand me. I have not played with Cortana but Google Now is FAR better than Siri.
Granted I don’t do many voice searches and I don’t use a lot of the personalised stuff – because I don’t like storing my information in the cloud – but from what I’ve seen I can get traffic times to work/home on both and weather on both (notification centre vs. Google Now screen). I don’t know enough about voice searches though, so I can’t attest to that.
fair enough….i’m really basing my theory on 2-3 days of toying around with Siri so I guess my opinion is not very solid in a way.
Give Cortana a try when you get the chance. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I have every intention to….I am honestly curious. =)
No thanks. If I wanted Microsoft on my phone I wouldn’t have gone with Android.
Why not? Choice is good. If nothing else, it might make Google step up and improve OK Google. Everybody wins.
That would assume they see Cortana as a threat. When a phone has 3% market share, it’s barely a footnote let alone a threat.
No, not a Windowsphone threat. A threat to losing access to your queries via OK Google. If it’s going through Cortana instead, they will need to make sure that they bring users back to Google for the services.
I support all of the mobile devices for my company. I recently had to set up Windows phones in our enterprise. While the phone itself would not make me leave Android, I WAS impressed by Cortana. It’s fluid and sounds more natural.
That’s more about what I’m referring to. I don’t know anyone who left Android for Windows UNLESS they really NEEDED a killer camera in their phone. Cortana is pretty smooth.
Android had a 3% market share at one point…
Years ago, and they grew rapidly. MS…not so much.
Ms has monopoly on desk top holding oems like dell, HP as hostage. No one wants pos ms mobile windows mangoe phone or windows 7/8/9/10 phone
The hell we don’t. Windows Phone 8.1.1 is superb. This will give a lot of Android users the chance to experience a little bit of why. Especially if they have a Windows PC that they can upgrade to Windows 10.
Guess ms loves competitor on its monopoly desktop market with chromo books….not
How is it Microsoft’s fault that Google allows them to make apps for Android? They would be stupid not to make an app. As long as android is popular and sells, MS gets a crapload of money from Android sales.
As for their monopoly… Macbooks seem to be doing well. I’m an android user and have never wanted a chromebook. It’s good to have options.
LoL. You think a “monopoly” is the only thing holding back mass consumption of Chromebooks?
Cortana is actually very useful. used it on the work phone when we was looking to switch from iphones to windows phones. I will definitely give it a chance once it is available. don’t know if it will integrate as well with android as it does with the windows platform but I am very interested.
I’ve always wanted to try it. This gives me the chance!!
As long as it brings the same features as Google Now, I’m game. I’m sure it won’t revert to Google for search, but I don’t use Now for search much, just as my personal assistant. I hope ‘OK Google’ will still function well without Now enabled.
Edit: Nevermind, this’ll make my Wear device pretty obsolete without Now.
Well, back when I was on MIcrosoft based smart phones…before Android was every around, I used Microsoft’s Voice Command. I have no idea at this point how that compares to Cortina. But I will say this: I have missed VC ever since moving to Android. It worked very well, and provided more that was useful to me. I could say “What is my schedule today?” and it would read out mly appointments. I”d listen to that over BT while on the way to work. Better at loading music ‘from the phone’. I’m very interested in giving it a go. Google NOW and Google voice caommands are still finicky and inconsistent in my experience.
Ms the evil vampire suing android wants to hijack your Android phone ..another pos from ms.
Oh grow up. If that’s true then what does that make Google making their apps available on iOS?