After a succession of beta trials, Microsoft has officially announced that their virtual assistant Cortana will be heading to Android devices' lock screens. Cortana will be offering different types of information like weather forecast, appointments, and more.
The incorporation of Cortana was reported earlier this month, but Microsoft confirms that it's now widely available, as per the announcement in a blog post. Users can also interact with Cortana according to Microsoft. It will entertain questions just like what Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant can do. An example would be, performing different tasks like arrange appointments, setting reminders and more.
In its beta phase, users can directly go into the Cortana's Settings menu to switch on the lock screen. After this, it will place a floating logo of Cortana on the screen. If users will swipe it, it will show the users personalized lock screen with information like schedules, events, and other information that Cortana can offer.
This functionality could give Google a little extra challenge on its own platform given that Google only has one entry in the PC space which is the Chrome OS. This results to adding Cortana to being more useful for Windows users given its ability to exchange and make use of information across desktops, laptops and mobiles.
There were improvements made in the Cortana home on Android, according to Microsoft. It will make information easier to read, quick addition of reminders and new calendar items, easier access viewing, adding and editing items to lists.
Cortana was also given an updated design for iOS and Android last December. The main focus on the upgrade is to make things easier to get by putting the most important tasks more to the center of the experience. The Cortana's default color was purple, instead of the blue and black of the previous Cortana.
However, Microsoft made more additions for the color ways in the weeks after the upgrade which includes blue, green and black. In addition to its launching in the U.S. and U.K., Australia will also be having Cortana which was just launched today.