Apple launched Siri in 2011, Google launched Google now in 2014 and now Microsoft has unveiled its newest technologically advanced personal assistant called Cortana. Joe Belfiore, the corporate vice president of Microsoft introduced Cortana at the company’s annual Build keynote conference in San Francisco. Cortana will work as a voice search mechanism for Windows Smartphone 8.1 OS, which is an updated form of Microsoft’s mobile Operating System.
Cortana significantly differs from the two biggest virtual voice search assistants in the market, Google Now and Siri, as it responds to your voice in a much efficient manner without having to learn how you speak. Based on Master Chief’s AI partner from Halo videogame series, the Cortana will work with voice recognition technology and will perform search operations through Bing.
The personal digital assistant, Cortana will be able to work just like a human assistant who keeps track of your day-to-day activities like setting reminders, managing meetings, and many other personal or official tasks. Along with helping you in organizing regular activities, the intelligent assistant will also allow you to search the entire web on Windows Smartphone 8.1. So, how is Cortana better than Apple’s Siri and Google Now?
Amalgamation of Siri and Google Now
Apple was the first company to embed a virtual assistant in mobile phones then Google launched its own version of intelligent assistant called Google Now, and now after patiently waiting for a long time, Microsoft unveiled the amalgamation of both Siri and Google Now, which is Cortana. According to Microsoft, Cortana will be able to use certain mobile applications for a user, for e.g. if a user utters “Facebook, what’s up,” the assistant will display a report of friend’s latest update.
Friendly Conversation
Cortana’s ability is not only limited to personal assistance tasks, but it can also converse with the user in a friendly manner. Like Google Now and Siri, a user need not ask questions in an official manner, instead he can chat as if he is talking to a friend. For example, if you put a question “what about the Celsius,” Cortana’s reply will be the temperature of your specific location.
More updates
Microsoft is looking forward to add many other advanced features in Cortana, which will eventually help the users in performing daily activities with ease. At present, the intelligent virtual assistant can use certain applications, make or reject calls, send messages, give reminders and set alarms for a user.
Summary:
Since Cortana is the latest virtual assistant developed by Microsoft, the question is, whether it will surpass other dominant intelligent assistants like Siri and Google Now in performance.
