<div><em>Cortana is intended to be central to the Windows 10 experience, learning what you do, taking notes on your preferences if you let her, and predicting what you will need as you work with your PC as well as any tablet or mobile</em></div><div> </div><div> </div><div>It looks like we’ll have several voices clamouring for attention, very soon. Apple’s Siri, Google’s whatever-her-name-is, Amazon’s Echo, Facebook’s Moneypenny, and then there’s Microsoft’s Cortana. These virtual assistants are going to get into everything and battle it out to be the one that guides you through everyday life. Facebook’s, for now, seems to be intended for helping you buy stuff, and so isAmazon’s to some extent, but the others are looking to be more comprehensively embedded in all the tech you use.</div><div> </div><div>Cortana may be Microsoft’s voice, but she’s already found her way to Android and will soon be on iOS as well because people no longer use Windows alone but live on their mobiles – not necessarily thoserunning Windows either. With so many activities having shifted to mobiles and Microsoft’s Lumia phones barely maintaining a tiny share of the mobile market, the company that once was in so much trouble for being monopolistic now has to put its software on to other platforms more frequently used all over the world. This includes Cortana, the virtual assistant.</div><div> </div><div>As we draw closer to the launch of Widows 10 on 29th July, a beta version of Cortana for Android has leaked (in that purposely accidentally way that companies have these days) and many users are trying that out right now. Cortana is intended to be central to the Windows 10 experience, learning what you do, taking notes on your</div><div>preferences if you let her, and predicting what you will need as you work with your PC as well as any tablet or mobile. The idea is for you to be able to take up where you left of as you move from one device to another. Cortana is supposed to understand semantic language and respond meaningfully including getting you a file you were working on for example. Personalisation is the intention here.</div><div> </div><div>To download Cortana on Android, you’ll need to key in a web search and links to the “apk” will come up. You’ll get an alert about downloading an unknown file to your phone and indeed, you may want to avoid it, but if you want to risk it, you’ll get a glimpse into Cortana.</div><div> </div><div>Cortana, at the moment, is not yet fully functional and in fact the real value is supposed to be when moving across devices that include a PC or laptop running Windows 10, so you may wonder what the big deal is. There’s already Google Now ready to respond to all sorts of queries and, on many phones such as those from Samsung, a voice</div><div>assistant from the company anyway. Currently, Cortana on Android will push some information at you, answer queries, set reminders etc. The interface for the Cortana app is interesting to see and what will be incorporated in Windows 10.</div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
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