Windows Phone and the coming of ‘Cortana’ to take on Apple’s Siri

Cortana Windows Phone

Come this April, Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows Phone 8.1 at their Build conference in San Francisco. That Bone refresh will be announced on the 18 calendar month anniversary of 8.0, putting Microsoft on the dot for their planned release wheel, one that is expected to be accelerated to 12 months next time effectually i.eastward. 'Threshold'.

1 of the anticipated features of viii.one is codenamed 'Cortana', its namesake taken from the AI banana from the popular gaming franchise Halo. 'Cortana' is expected to replace (or augment) the current Bing TellMe service found on Windows Phone 8.0. Recently, MSFTNerd, who claims to be in the know about certain Microsoft plans, has made some interesting assertions about 'Cortana'.

The Halo voice comes to Windows Phone?

In a brief postal service on his Tumblr business relationship, MSFTNerd states the following:

"Cortana will be voiced by Jen Taylor & volition launch commencement in beta on Lumia this April for US developers. The service will aggrandize to the Bing app for iPhone in the United states market this fall. The underlying technology will be extended to American Xbox 1 & Windows users in 2022 with Threshold. Availability in additional English-speaking territories will exist spread out over 2022 & 2022."

We've been digging effectually for some data regarding 'Cortana' and from various sources, we now know that some of this may exist wishful thinking.

Specifically, the name. While just nigh everyone wants Microsoft to telephone call their new voice assistant Cortana – even the folks at Microsoft – as usual these things are not that simple. For i, Halo is adult by 343 Industries, which is endemic past Microsoft but still operates equally its own company in many ways. And so while taking the proper name of an AI character from a video game an appropriating information technology for a vocalization tool for a phone seems like a no-brainer from a geek perspective, the reality of information technology is it'south not that easy due to licensing and fifty-fifty concern considerations.

Microsoft TellMe

That'southward not to say Microsoft is not because it – they certainly are – it'southward just not clear yet if they tin pull it off. At that place is some precedent though, including the re-branding of Microsoft'due south projection 'Surface' to 'PixelSense', allowing Microsoft to adopt that proper name for their tablet line. The difference at that place, however, was Microsoft Surface at the time was non a widespread consumer product, making disambiguation more straightforward (instead, Microsoft Surface was sold as an end-to-end product directly to large firms).

Unfortunately, nosotros have non been able to confirm that Jen Taylor, the voice of the AI in Halo, volition be doing the vocal sound for the 'Cortana' project on Windows Phone. In fact, at that place is a trouble here to consider, as brought to our attending by one of our sources: "…programmed voices have to be able to pronounce almost anything and getting a human vox recorded that would sound like the game version when all dialog is set might not pan out."

To put it some other way, if Taylor is the voice for the Windows Phone program, it's not well known throughout the ranks simply nevertheless, nor is information technology in current builds. And so if true, information technology'southward a very recent decision that hasn't been executed still. We'll follow upwards every bit nosotros collect more than information on the matter.

The skillful news is 'Cortana' is set to go into private beta testing with family members at Microsoft, then long as they sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). This suggests that the project is ready-plenty for external testing, and information technology bodes well for April'southward reveal at Build 2022.

In terms of porting 'Cortana' to the iPhone and Xbox, while this sounds like a good thought, according to people familiar with the matter this has not yet begun. And so the decision may have been made at an executive level, but currently in that location are no builds even so floating around. Indeed, 'Threshold' is still more ideas than a reality at this signal with features non nevertheless committed to by the evolution teams. Only it should exist clear that 'Cortana' is an ambitious project by Microsoft, one that they would naturally extend to their other services and platforms.

Design

Superintendent Halo Windows Phone
The Superintendent from Halo three: ODST is similiar to what the UI for "Cortana" might look like.

What does 'Cortana' look like? We've heard i clarification, a little bit dated but still accurate, put it thusly:

"...a little blue circle in the top left of this Cortana UI that slightly bounces as it listens/works in the background. And it responds depending on if it was successful or non. So if it can't find anything the blueish circle turns into a sad confront. It reminds me a bit of the Superintendent from Halo 3: ODST."

Another person familiar with Microsoft'south 'Cortana' plans put it this mode:

"The personality of Cortana is currently represented by a circle graphic that expresses what it'southward doing (searching, identifying music ala the electric current Bing music listener built into Windows Telephone, etc.) by diverse animations like spinning, flipping, etc. …more animations [have] come in over fourth dimension, and the color is based on your theme color."

In terms of functionality, we previously described 'Cortana' being very Siri-similar:

"This Cortana magic will be plant throughout the Bone and work contextually. For example, allow's say I send you an SMS that says similar "Want to go dinner tomorrow in Seattle?" You'll see parts of that text message underlined. Click that and you'll be able to instantly enter the info into your calendar with some of those fields already populated. So it would make full "Seattle" as the location, if I had said a time it will already have the fourth dimension there."

It is rather "sci-fi / Halo-ish" in terms of looks, but information technology's not clear that information technology volition actually be called Cortana nor use Jen Taylor's vox.

Coming soon

Hope springs eternal though and Microsoft is well aware of the demand to associate Windows Phone with their Halo franchise. However, we'll have to wait and come across exactly what Redmond tin pull off come up this Apr. 'Cortana', any it may be called, should exist one of many new features coming to Windows Telephone viii.1, giving Microsoft a new edge with their burgeoning Bone.

And nosotros tin't wait.

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