We've known that Microsoft has big plans for its Google Now-style Cortana service, and those extend beyond Windows on both the phone and desktop. The company has finally shared when it intends to make good on those plans. A blog post says that Cortana (named for the female AI in the Halo series of shooters) will be coming to Android as a beta sometime in July. Windows 10, which will include Cortana for desktops and laptops, is scheduled to be released on July 29th.
Microsoft says that the Android app will be "working as a companion to Cortana on your Windows 10 PC." Exactly what that means isn't clear, but it seems that Microsoft may limit Cortana on Android to Windows 10 users, at least initially. While Cortana performs much of the same web-connected functions as Google Now and Siri, the updated version will also perform duties specific to Microsoft's software ecosystem.
One of the highlights of Cortana is that it would act as a companion app that will help users connect their Windows PC to whatever phone they own - whether it's Windows Phone, Android, or iPhone. For instance, if a user sets an alarm for 8pm on the Android smartphone using Cortana and is later playing a video on Xbox One at that moment, Cortana would sync the alarm across platforms and would interrupt the Xbox One video to show the alarm.
Microsoft's synthetic voice engine is arguably better than both Google's and Apple's attempts at human-like speech. Cortana's fully integrated capabilities, and how useful they'll be for users of non-Windows computers, remain to be seen and now that there are other players in the league such as Hound, Cortana will have to provide a really good service to leave them all behind.
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