A few weeks ago we were able congratulate a virtual assistant arriving from SoundHound, the popular app to "guess" a song that had decided to develop an application that will compete with Google Now, Siri and Cortana. Hound surprised us all because according to the developers themselves, it will have special attention to the ability to better understand the user's voice, and this is due to the experience that this group of developers has with SoundHound. A skill that will allow the assistant to respond naturally to long, complete sentences.
As now it seems that we are going to have great competition in this type of applications and services, very soon we will have the possibility of accessing the beta of Cortana, Microsoft's own assistant that has been one of the central axes for Windows 10 and that will become one of the most anticipated updates for everyone. And today, in an entry on its blog, Microsoft has indicated that Cortana for Android will arrive sometime in July.
Cortana in beta
Not long ago Microsoft surprised us again when it announced the arrival of Cortana on Android. Another virtual assistant that will try to make things difficult for both Google Now on Android and Siri on iOS. A beta that supposedly would arrive by the end of this month, but that seems to be delayed to have it in the month of July. This has also served to announce that the beta testing phase of Cortana will not have a deadline so it will be with us for a while until it is well polished for the launch of its final version.
The reason Microsoft delayed the beta launch from late June to sometime in July is unknown, but yes that clarifies that Android users will finally be able to test it. Although the version that we will have will be shortened in characteristics if we compare it to the one that Windows Phone users will take.
Cortana, Siri, Google Now, Hound ...
With Cortana a user on Android can be able to do certain things such as having an assistant to set an alarm at a certain time or day, and that this reminder can be used on another Microsoft platform or product. And as with other assistants, we can ask Cortana certain questions to receive specific answers.
The big surprise we received as a virtual assistant was Hound, the new addition to compete in what seems like a category that will have several main players who will fight to offer the best services to users such as Siri, Google Now or Cortana. The only thing that would remain is that we see Siri at some point on Android. A bit crazy at first, but after seeing how Apple Music will land on Android in the fall, anything could happen.
Now we will only have to try each of the virtual assistants that we will have at our disposal and decide which one has cajoled us enough so that it becomes the favorite and thus helps us in our day to day with the normal tasks that we do with our smartphone. Cortana, Google Now and Hound will fight to be your virtual assistant.