14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows Phone 8.1 in early April, but we already know some of the new features that the Redmond-based company plans to add to its mobile platform.
One such feature is the Cortana voice assistant, which is now preparing to make the jump on Lumia smartphones, MSFTnerd claims.
The new service has been rumored a while back and is Microsoft’s answer to Siri. According to the cited source, the beta version of Cortana will be launched on Nokia Lumia smartphones sometime in April.
The voice assistant will only be available for developers in the United States and will probably go global a few months later. Microsoft’s BUILD 2014 event is set to take place between 2-4 April, which is probably the time when Cortana will be made available to US developers.
What’s more interesting is that MSFTnerd states that the service will be extended to American Xbox One and Windows users in 2015, once the Threshold goes official.
Furthermore, Microsoft is said to expand the service to the Bing application for iOS this fall, but only in the United States.
The bad news is that Cortana voice assistant will only be available in the US for a long time. Additional English speaking countries are likely to get the service in 2015-2016, while other non-English speaking countries may get it much later or not at all.
Cortana is said to be voiced by Jen Taylor (Halo games) and here are some questions that one could ask in order to turn on the service:
“Bing Tell Me ...” “... will it rain today?” “... when’s my next meeting?” “... how do I get to the American Airlines Arena?”
On a side note, some of the speech recognition improvements that will be part of the Cortana voice assistant services have already been integrated in Bing Translator application for Windows, but not for Windows Phone yet.