Gadgetory

if your preferred virtual assistant comes from the world of Halo great news she's not confined to Windows Phone anymore I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and this is a quick look at Microsoft's Cortana virtual assistant for Android this is a pre-release version of Cortana that was leaked earlier today so while it's been widely reported on and seems nearly complete keep in mind that it's technically non final we're using it on a Galaxy s6 active and we've seen reports of it running well on the oneplus one and note 4 if you want to try it out we'll drop the link in the description and download it at your own risk as you might expect Cortana on Android is an awful lot like Cortana on Windows Phone in addition to the voice prompt you now get a list of items Cortana thinks you'll find useful when you fire up the virtual assistant like local news recommended news trending stories based on readership and your interests local weather movies playing nearby and so on if it sounds an awful lot like Google now it is except while Google now often keeps its cards to a minimum a Cortana seems to err on the side of abundance Cortana is also much more granular than Google's assistant if you never want to see finance or sports cards for example you can turn them off which is nice you can also edit your favorite places or change how Cortana addresses you it's all handled through Cortana's notebook which syncs across devices using your Microsoft or Outlook account this seems to be a pretty close to final build because Cortana works well on the SX active you can set alarms by voice ask her to show you what your appointment calendar looks like ask her questions about the universe ask her what to do tonight and yeah ask her to tell you a joke what you can't do is some of the deeper level stuff you can do on Windows Phone like asking Cortana to remind you of something the next time you talk to someone specific in your address book or asking her what song is playing on a nearby radio you also can't launch her via the hey Cortana voice command or by using the HOME key but if you have a phone with an assignable Hardware button like this one you can use that at the moment there's no support for Samsung's multi window either but maybe that'll change in a future release how well Cortana will integrate into Android in its final incarnation remains to be seen again this is just a pre-release version but considering its added granularity of options and it's closer integration with folks who prefer a Microsoft ecosystem to a Google one well you can bet we'll be revisiting that question again very soon for more in-depth discussion of Cortana on Android check out this week's episode of the pocket non weekly podcast and also see our recent Windows Phone reviews at pocketnow.com till next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow reminding you to take care of your AI as she might just save you from the Covenant one day thanks for watching guys we'll see you next time