Microsoft's assistant is finally making its App Store and Google Play debut.
The company officially launched a standalone version of its assistant Cortana on iOS and Android Wednesday. Though a beta version was previously available on Android, this marks the first time Microsoft has made Cortana widely available on both platforms.
Though you don't technically need a Windows 10 PC to take advantage of the Cortana app, Microsoft says its assistant apps work best when used with Cortana's desktop counterpart. When the two are used together, the idea is something like Apple's Continuity features, which make it easy to switch between tasks on different iOS and OS X devices.
When using the Cortana app, for example, you can set a location-based reminder on your PC and have it appear on your phone when you're at the specified location. Or you can view and respond to missed calls from your Cortana-enabled PC.
If you use other Microsoft services on your smartphone, the Cortana app doesn't connect to them — you can't use Cortana to send an email from Outlook on your iPhone, for instance. Though Marcus Ash, Microsoft's Group Program Manager of Cortana, says they are considering ways to make stronger connections between apps.
IMAGE: MICROSOFT
"It's a bit of a learning process for us right now in terms of what can we do based on the restrictions that the platform might have in place," Ash told Mashable. "Even just building the idea that I can do something on my PC and have a continuation on my phone, we think is going to be powerful and some thing we're going to spend a bunch of time on. "
Of course, Cortana on iOS and Android will never be as powerful as it is on Windows devices, since the app isn't a core part of the operating systems the way Apple and Google's built-in assistants are. Microsoft is, however, also bringing a more powerful version of Cortana to a new operating system: Cyanogen OS, an alternative version of Android.
The two companies are partnering to bake Cortana in at a system level to the the OnePlus One, which runs Cyanogen. Once the update, expected later this month, is live, OnePlus One users will be able to invoke the "Hey Cortana," command and use the assistant to adjust system settings like changing network modes, activating quiet mode and turning off a device.
Though the OnePlus One will be the first Cyanogen OS device to get the Cortana integration, Microsoft says it plans to make it available to more Cyanogen devices in the future.
SOURCE: MASHABLE
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