The final version may be launched in the country earlier than expected

May 28, 2014 14:49 GMT  ·  By

Since Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview back in April, many users not living in the United States have been trying to enable Cortana on their devices.

One of the major features in Windows Phone 8.1 platform, Cortana, is still in beta stage and, officially, it’s only available in the United States.

However, Microsoft has promised Windows Phone users that it will try to bring the personal digital assistant to additional countries as soon as possible.

The main reason for the slow rollout of Cortana in other countries was explained by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, who said that his company wished to offer Windows Phone users an “excellent experience.”

The most difficult aspect of delivering this “excellent experience” is to offer great voice recognition for all languages, other than English, and making sure that Cortana provides accurate local content.

Obviously, the first countries after the United States to get Cortana will be those using English as their native language, so the UK is surely on the list.

In fact, Microsoft has already confirmed that once Cortana is out of beta and version 1.0 hits Windows Phone, the personal digital assistant should arrive in China and the UK.

Microsoft also plans to bring Cortana to “other English-speaking countries (eg. Canada, Australia) out relatively quickly as well. In the meantime, we're thrilled that people are trying it out in other countries and we use that data to train the system.”

Even though we have yet to determine when exactly Windows Phone 8.1 will be officially released for the general public, it appears that Microsoft has already started to tease the arrival of Cortana in the UK.

According to Microsoft’s support website, Windows Phone 8.1 should be supported for 36 months beginning June 24, so we expect the platform to be released around that timeframe.

Along with the Windows Phone 8.1 release, we also expect Microsoft to launch the final version of Cortana. Although this has yet to be confirmed by the Redmond-based company, more and more details indicate that Cortana is ready to be rolled out in other countries as well.

The recent teaser claiming that Cortana will “soon” be available in the UK should be enough for Windows Phone users in the country to expect the major feature to arrive on their devices sooner rather than later.

We expect Microsoft to continue to share more details on the matter, so stay tuned for additional info on this one and share your thoughts with us in the comments section.