Microsoft releases Cortana voice assistant public beta for Android

The Cortana app on Android is the companion to your Windows 10 PC, extending Cortana’s functionality across any device you carry, everywhere you go.

You may not take digital assistants seriously just yet, but Microsoft does and it wants you start relying on its version right now. Microsoft had officially announced that the app would launch for Android soon, in May. Cortana has been confirmed to be releasing on both iOS and Android devices, only the Android version has made its way into a public beta.

Android: Microsoft has been working on a Cortana app for Android for a while.

Microsoft digital assistant software is now available to test on any Android device. With the launch of Windows 10, Cortana was welcomed to desktops, laptops, and tablets. During the first run, it will ask you to sign in with your Microsoft account, a nickname, and ask you to agree to its terms and conditions.

The tech giant revealed that its digital assistant will provide Android users a variety of interesting features such as, browsing the internet, setting reminders, tracking flights, and also make different voice-powered searches. Currently the wake-up phrase of “Hey, Cortana” that provides a hands-free experience is not available, and the app is limited to US users for now. Promising a mixture of Google Now-style contextual learning with smart speech recognition, Cortana supports voice-controlled calendar control, web searches, and more, along with sifting through news articles and other pertinent data she believes each individual user might be interested in.

The “for Android phones” part here is also a noticeable limitation.