The APK of Cortana for Android devices has leaked online. Microsoft announced the Cortana in May. Microsoft believes the leak may have originated from one of the beta testers invited from China or the US.
The Cortana apps for Android will allow users to do many, but not all tasks as they will be able to do on Windows-based devices. Microsoft is also working to enabled the syncing of Cortana’s notebook across all devices where the personal assistant is available. You can download and try it right now. Considering this is a beta version of the app, it will have some bugs and needs polishing up of specific features.
As you’d expect, this is an early build of Cortana for Android, so it’s a little rough around the edges and some of the features don’t work as they should in the real world. Having that said, we took Cortana for Android for a spin on our Nexus 5 running Android M and it’s safe to say that Microsoft has done a fine job at porting its voice assistant over to Google’s mobile platform.
Earlier: Microsoft’s Cortana coming to Android in Beta next Month
According to the official Windows blog, Cortana, the voice assistant created by Microsoft, will come to Android sometime in July. Microsoft currently offers Cortana on the Windows Phone platform. The Cortana apps for Android will allow users to do many, but not all tasks as they will be able to do on Windows-based devices. Microsoft is also working to enabled the syncing of Cortana’s notebook across all devices where the personal assistant is available.
Cortana was introduced to Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system early in 2014 to help the company keep up with the popular Siri service that’s integrated into Apple’s iOS mobile operating system. Cortana’s name should be familiar to fans of the Halo video game series on Microsoft’s Xbox gaming system. Cortana is a holographic AI construct that figures prominently in the game’s universe, according to an earlier eWEEK report.
In February, Microsoft announced that Cortana will become an integral part of the user experience when the Windows 10 desktop operating system is released this fall. Like its current smartphone-based counterpart, the software will grow more familiar with users as time passes and tailor recommendations based on their preferences and day-to-day interactions, according to Microsoft.
There are some important differences interacting with Cortana, depending on whether they are using a smartphone, a tablet or a desktop PC. The Bing-powered assistant features natural-language input, both spoken and typed, and can search the Web, OneDrive cloud storage accounts and content stored on a device to help users find the information they’re looking for.
