Microsoft to bring Cortana to Android and iOS as a standalone app

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Published 13 Mar 2015

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A report from Reuters claims that Microsoft will be bringing its “personal assistant” Cortana, which is currently found in Windows Phone and in Windows 10 later this year, to iOS and Android devices as a standalone app.

Microsoft is also developing an advanced version of Cortana –codenamed “Einstein” — that relies on artificial intelligence to automatically provide relevant information to users depending on the time or location.

“This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame,” said Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and a part of the Einstein project, in an interview at the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

The upcoming version of Cortana will rely heavily on the location of its user, the time, and the task that they are trying to accomplish for its success.

Microsoft has long been known only for its Windows OS for PCs and Office suite of productivity applications. Its other major projects like Windows Phone and Surface tablets have failed to gain traction. However, under its new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has a renewed focus and is trying to push its apps and services across all platforms rather than only integrating them with its own operating systems.

By bringing Cortana to millions of iOS and Android users, Microsoft will also be able to collect more data to improve the performance of its digital assistant.

[Via Reuters]