Cortana for Windows finally coming to India!

Microsoft's digital assistant Cortana launched back in 2014 was the Redmond giant's take on the intelligent voice assistants of its counterparts, namely the Google Now and the Siri. Despite all the ohhs and ahhs after hearing about the Cortana at the Build Conference (during the launch of Windows 8.1), many were left disappointed when they came to know that this feature would be US specific for sometime.

Expansion plans:

Nevertheless the Cortana became popular in India too, albeit via a workaround. Overwhelmed by the response the company had launched an alpha version of intelligent voice assistant in India. And as the name suggests, it did come stripped of a number of features. But now Microsoft aims to expand by launching the voice assistant to India, Japan, Canada and Australia.

Its journey to the Latin America would follow soon with the first two destinations being Brazil and Mexico. The Cortana fans in those countries will have to wait till the year end though. A few months back Microsoft launched the voice assistant in UK and so far it has been highly popular among the netizens in that country.

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Why the delay?

On being asked why the company delayed the launch of the voice assistant to foreign shores, the Head of Cortana team at Microsoft gave a deft answer. "In each market, we focus in on certain key attributes that help us find the right voice talent for Cortana," said Marcus Ash. He has a valid point though. No one lands a half-baked cookie to arrive, and we acknowledge the fact that Microsoft understands that.

Try out the Cortana in Android and iOS too!

Satya Nadella led Microsoft now have also launched the beta version of the Cortana in Android and iOS. This is a part of their ‘Phone companion' experience which will help users of Cortana in Windows 10 utilize the same voice assistant in their smartphones no matter which platform it runs on. Microsoft's phone companion will help Windows 10 PC owners find relevant apps on their Android, Windows or iOS phones to make use of OneNote, OneDrive, and many other apps and services.

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The beta version is available for download via the Windows's Insider account which you had used to download the Windows 10 preview. You would be required to be based in either of US, Canada or China and possess one of the handful of Android devices listed on the website to try out the app. Here again there's a work around as you can directly download the apk from this link. It will give the users based in other countries to try out the Cortana!