Reuters reported back in March that Microsoft planned to bring its Siri competitor Cortana to iOS, and Microsoft has now officially confirmed this in a blog post.
Today, we’re announcing a Cortana application for Android phones and for iPhones which works as a companion to Cortana on your Windows 10 PC. The ‘Phone Companion’ app on the PC will help you install the Cortana app from the Google Play or Apple App Store onto your phone so you’ll be able to take the intelligence of Cortana with you, wherever you go […]
The Cortana companion will be available for Android phones at the end of June and for iPhones later this year.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXREpLEwgOY]
While Microsoft is pitching the app as a companion to a Windows PC, it appears that most of the functionality will work in the iPhone app without the need for a Windows device, Microsoft saying that you can “make the same queries, ask the same questions” in the standalone app …
As we noted last time, the move seems to be primarily geared to acknowledging the reality that even avid Windows PC fans are unlikely to own a Windows Phone – but by offering tight integration between the iPhone and Windows 10, Microsoft will also be hoping to persuade iPhone users that they don’t need to buy a Mac to have a close working relationship between their phone and laptop or tablet.
With the Apple ecosystem a key part of the appeal for iPhone owners, Microsoft has set itself a tough challenge, but as a big Siri fan, I’ll certainly be curious to see how Cortana compares once it makes it to iOS.
Microsoft has repeatedly attacked Siri in a series of ads for Cortana.
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Ask her this: “Who’s your daddy?”
http://marketingland.com/wp-content/ml-loads/2014/04/cortana-who-created-you1.jpg
Hmm. How do I embed a picture on this WP software?
No tags needed, it automatically embeds images
+1
I just turned Siri off. The frustrations of the simple tasks that Siri can’t do more than outweighs the few thing it can do ok. Th final straw was when Siri couldn’t find “Canon Phrmacy” which is in my contacts. Not only could Siri not find this in my contacts, it failed to locate it on the web. I’ve spent 10 times more time and energy trying to get Siri to give me the right information, than it’s ever saved me by doing something right.
Next time, take the Twinkie out of your mouth before talking.
Lick my plate, Niles.
Apple need to do a MAJOR overhaul on Siri because its YEARS behind …i wish Apple lets us choose what voice service to use because i hate Siri so much
It would be nice but we all know Apple will never relinquish it’s grip on default apps.
Windows 10 is looking impressive. Very pleased with the post-Ballmer Microsoft.
Not really.
You have to be the biggest “fanboi” in the world (or a biased iOS/OS X developer) to think that Windows 10 DOESN’T look impressive, because frankly it does :)
Whether it actually is remains to be seen of course!
I agree.
No, Siri wont have any competition. This will simply be a voice activated search engine.
Whoop-dee-doo.
You have clearly never used it. Once you do, you will never look back at Siri.
A voice activated search engine that works well would be better than Siri.
….but not really, because it will never get any low level OS access. So, what’s the point?
My usage of Siri moved exclusively to WATCH over night. This is a whole new level of voice control. iOS 9 needs merely to bring further polish to Siri.
I agree
Siri is fantastic on the watch.
True! I have used reminders more than I ever have with the watch! ^_^
Well, if not else Cortana sounds really… boring and stupid. Microsoft failed again. (Yet again, Apple is not the best name for a company too I guess.. haha). We’ll see how the future of voice recognition will go. I assume that in 2020 we’ll do less than 50% of the operations by fingers/etc, only voice control. :)
Siri is stupid and enfuriating. I’ll take boring and stupid over that.
I don’t know why people are having problems with Siri. It was worked since the beginning for me. The most impressive being the location based reminders which again, has been since the beginning. :)
They should build upon the partnership they have with IBM and make Siri and Watson work together. This could be hughes and so usefull.
If it were possible to replace Siri with a competitor I’d do so in an instant. Siri has become comically inept at auto-correct and it’s ability to “do things” is very limited when compared to the Android or Windows Phone (10) equivalents.
nice
Too bad Siri has done all of this from the get go. Just saying :)