Microsoft Cortana – In this digital era, a human assistant is no longer necessary. Now, what we need is a digital personal assistant, an assistant that won’t fail to remind our schedule and that can answer all of our questions even to the most absurd question. Microsoft launched Cortana, Microsoft first digital personal assistant, in 2014.
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What is Microsoft Cortana?
Cortana is Microsoft’s digital personal assistant that can remind the users about the schedule, recognize audio sources and provide answers or information for 24/7 without fail. It can respond in two ways, silently and verbally. If you type the command, Cortana will respond by a written answer. If you speak the command, Cortana will respond by a verbal answer.
There are several tough competitors for Cortana. These competitors include Siri from Apple, Google Assistant from Google, Alexa from Amazon, and Bixby from Samsung.
Microsoft Cortana features
Reminder feature. Reminder feature in Microsoft Cortana is more extensive than common reminders. The feature allows you to set a specific time, location and person. So, when the specific time is up, or when you are in the specific location or when you interact with a specific person, the reminder notification will pop up telling what it has been set to.
- Search feature. The Cortana’s natural language capability is more extensive than the previous Windows search feature, so Cortana search feature is easier to use and more responsive to the questions.
- Recognize the song. Cortana can recognize and identify the sound from external sources. Cortana can give you information about the song playing near you.
- Bing search engine. Cortana will use the Bing search engine to find the information that you are looking for. Cortana also uses the Bing search engine to give you fun fact information or answer the trivia questions in merely a few seconds. No matter what default web browser you set, Cortana will lead the browser to use Bing as its search engine. If you want to force Cortana to use other search engines, you have to install the additional extension in your default web browser.
- Cortana can do calculation and conversion for currencies, length unit, volume unit, and other measurement units.
- You can use the Cortana search box to track package numbers and flight number. So, you know the real-time status of the flights and packages.
- Cortana provides various weather information. Information under the “Weather” label is for the weather in your location, and information under “Weather in [location]” label is for the weather in specific locations.
- Cortana provides navigation to the location of choice using the Windows 10 Maps app.
- Using the Alarm & Clock app, Cortana will create an alarm for you.
- Cortana will launch the program for you when you type or say the command.
- Cortana can send mail to the accounts you have set in the built-in Mail app.
- By simply saying “add meeting,” Cortana will create the event into the calendar and will remind when the event time is up.
- Cortana can become the chat partner when you’re in the mood for chatting.
Cortana supporting platforms
Cortana is available for devices that use platforms like Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, Windows Phone 8.1, Android, iOS, Xbox One, Cyanogen OS, Windows Mixed Reality, Skype, and Microsoft Band.
