Microsoft releases Cortana for Android; to integrate the digital assistant heavily into Cyanogen OS

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 9 Dec 2015

Cortana logo

After months of beta testing, Microsoft today released the final version of Cortana — its digital personal assistant — for iOS and Android. The company also released new Cortana apps for Windows 10 users that makes it possible to share your data with your Android or iOS running smartphones.

Despite the various restrictions, Cortana on Android integrates pretty heavily with Android. Beside being able to track your flight, packages and weather, it is also possible to get notifications about missed calls on your Windows 10 PC and then send a quick text message to the caller through Cortana.

“Hey Cortana” hotword detection will also work in Android, but only as long as you are inside the app.

Microsoft plans on making Cortana for Android even better by working with Cyanogen Inc., in which it had invested earlier this year. In an interview with The Verge, Marcus Ash, the program manager of Cortana at Microsoft, explained that Cortana will be integrated heavily into the next version of Cyanogen OS. This will allow Cortana to trigger itself through “Hey Cortana” hotword, and will allow it to toggle network modes and change other device related settings. For now, Cyanogen OS with Cortana integration will be rolled out only to the OnePlus One.

Download: Cortana for Android

[Via The Verge]