A beta of Microsoft’s digital assistant for Android surfaces before its official launch later this month.
If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cortana for Android, you’re in luck. According to Finnish tech site SuomiMobiili (via Unofficial Microsoft News), a pre-release build of Microsoft’s digital assistant for Google’s mobile OS has leaked out and has been illicitly made available for download.
Unofficial Microsoft News says the leaked build is “functional” and that it has all the features you can expect from Cortana on Windows 10, so it would seem to be a pretty direct port of the software.
The story behind the story: Microsoft announced Cortana for Android last month, with a goal of releasing it sometime in July. By releasing Cortana for Android, Microsoft will take another step toward fulfilling CEO Satya Nadella’s vision for the company—that is, to provide productivity tools to as many customers as possible, even if they are using a competing platform like Android. Whether Cortana offers enough to sway Android users away from Google Now remains to be seen, but you can’t fault Microsoft for trying.
Proceed with caution
If you decide to take it for a spin, keep in mind the leaked version of Cortana is still a beta, and one that was not necessarily intended for public consumption, so you may encounter bugs along the way. If you would rather play it safe, there will be hads-on reviews available next week.
Nick Mediati, IDG News Service
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