‘Hey, Cortana’ voice activation arrives for Android users

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Published 23 Oct 2015

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MS-Cortana

At the end of August, Microsoft officially released its digital personal assistant, Cortana, as a beta for Android users.

The features list isn’t as fleshed out as it is for Cortana users on Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10, but the arrival of the option was warmly welcomed by Windows users that wish to bridge their preferences, Notebook, and more to their PC and the personal assistant on their smartphone. For the beta users, one new addition will make the app even better as far as ease of use is concerned.

As one user discovered by playing around in the Settings of the app, the voice-activated “Hey, Cortana” feature is now present in the beta software. With this, users can simply say the command to access the assistant, and go from there. However, there are some caveats, as articulated by Android Central. Specifically, users will need to have the display on, and the phone unlocked, or the app already accessed, to launch the assistant with your voice.

It’s not as easy as simply being able to say, “Hey, Cortana” while the phone is resting next to you, but it’s certainly a nice addition.

Have you been trying out Cortana?

[via Android Central]