Microsoft's personal assistant Cortana headed to iOS and Android

Microsoft regularly pits its personal assistant Cortana against Apple’s Siri in a series of adverts, with predictable results. Cortana is always much smarter, funnier and more helpful. She’s certainly one of the high points of Windows Phone, and is set to make her debut on the desktop when she arrives as part of Windows 10 later this year.

However, it seems Cortana isn’t just going to be confined to working on Windows devices. According to Reuters, Microsoft is also working on bringing the personal assistant to iOS and Android in the form of a standalone app.

"This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame", Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and a part of the artificial intelligence Einstein project said in an interview.

Although he didn’t confirm plans to make Cortana more widely available (Reuters cites "people familiar with the project") it would certainly be an interesting move, and consistent with Microsoft pushing its software and services on rival platforms, often ahead of its own.

But is making Cortana available on other platforms going to significantly weaken Windows Phone’s appeal? She’s certainly one of the major selling points at the moment.

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