The huge Windows company will be launching its upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 next month at the build conference. With it comes “Cortana” Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, just like Siri for iPhone.
But Cortana has got a few features that perhaps not provided by Apple so perhaps competition from Microsoft (and Google) will prompt the iPhone maker to roll out new Siri features sooner than later. The Verge has an exclusive look at Cortana’s interface and some of its features, here are the highlights…
Author Tom Warren writes that Cortana, which got its name after the Halo game series, will replace the built-in Bing search functionality on Windows Phone 8.1.
Cortana will take the form of a circular animated icon instead of a female character. Cortana will animate when it’s speaking or thinking, forming a personality not dissimilar to Apple’s Siri.
And here’s how the UI settings looks like:
As long as you see the animated circle, this means that Cortana is thinking or answering your question.
Probably Cortana has the same features that Siri and Google Now have like the ability to call contacts, send messages, open specific apps, a sense of humor, flight numbers and etc…
“Cortana can call users by their name or nicknames like ‘Master Chief’ after they’re enabled in the settings,†explains Warren.
From The Verge’s first-look article dated last month:
Cortana will also react to messages or emails that contain phrases like “let’s meet tomorrow at 8PM†and ask if you’d like to set up reminders or calendar entries. Cortana can also provide guidance on weather, stocks, directions, appointments, and music that’s contextual based on location and other data.
As Cortana is a digital assistant, it will also be able to manage a do-not-disturb feature, similar to iOS, that’s designed to mute notifications. An “inner circle†of contacts will allow Cortana to manage notifications and phone calls during “quiet hours†when notifications are muted.
One of the headline features of Cortana is its ability to save information and data in a Notebook system, allowing the digital assistant to access stuff like location data, behaviors, personal information, reminders and contact information. Users can also tap Notebook to manage what information is shared with Cortana.
Microsoft is expected to unveil the feature alongside a developer preview of Windows Phone 8.1 at the upcoming Build conference, which runs April 2-4, 2014 in San Francisco, California.
