CORTANA for Android: Stacking the cards [LEAK]

"It's not too often that we find a voice recognition and command system which has a name and physical design inspired from the fascinating HOLO series, But when we do- Its only for Windows."

This cute yet semi-ironical statement would have done the rounds pretty well a few months ago but will be rested in peace very soon. Almost now. Almost.

Microsoft's voice recognition system Cortana was designed and implemented into the Mobile version of its utility OS-Windows phone! But with the growth of several VR assistants in the Android arena Microsoft decided it was high time it gave up its exclusive tag and ported it to the most used OS on mobile. Android.

But Microsoft hasn't released its Cortana for andorid yet right? Actually yes. But No. They didn't release it, But its out. a Finnish blog gave in a link to a leaked apk of Cortana. Still in BETA. We downloaded this bit and tested it.

Here are our impressions.

First things first, Cortana for Android app which we installed is still in BETA stage. Which means, This isn't the final release and maynot be stable due to unfixed bugs.

During first startup it begins with a formal yet crispy 'Hi I'm Cortana message' Then telling you it can make your life easier! Further it asks you to accept its T&C of use which has become a default criteria for almost every application. 

The it asks you for a Name/Nickname using which it can address you. Cute eh?

Then it pushes you to login to your Microsoft account. I still use Hotmail, So no worries. Once you are done, You are good to go.

Then you get welcomed by a screen which looks something like this- In my case "Hey Sashank what can I do for you?" 

Then it pulls you over to a Google now centric screen where the top news and feeds are displayed. Yes, All of them customizable though what they call as a 'Notebook'.

Down below the feeds is the search box which reads "Ask me anything". Attitude? Haha. 

The search bar is a text box with a voice command button on the side. One click and its at your service. Even giving you hints on what you could ask. Now that's confidence.

This version seems just a bit granular in appearance and isn't the smoothest. But this isn't the final version.

Performance:

Performance, That's the primary requirement we need from personal voice services. Let's see how it goes about-

Cortana is quite a good performer. Yes, Good. Nothing extraordinary. But we aren't final yet.

Cortana goes about its tasks with some ease which is so visible in its windows version. Again, Not reaching the same level.

If there is something Cortana impresses me the most, It has to be its ability to 'Understand YOU'. Totally.

That is, Chances of Cortana listening and recognizing the words you speak is high compared to others. I tried speaking a set of words/Sentence in the same accent and speed, In most cases Cortana got it right in the first attempt where others needed another attempt with a slower speed of speech(Includes Google now). Cortana certainly wins here and may improve this even more.

Native smartphone tasks like taking notes, Setting reminders, texting and calling is handled without much fuss. Lack of English names on my phone wasn't Cortana's mistake.

As you'd expect, Web related tasks are handled by Microsoft's search engine BING. And it does a considerably good job. Fact being that it doesn't really reach the Google level when it comes to results,But doesn't disappoint too.

But at some juctions Google Now acts just as a 'search engine' but Cortana doesn't. I tried asking Google Now and Cortana 'Show me hotels on New York for less than 500$' for which,

-Google Now did a standard Google search which showed up top websites which would provide the info.

-Cortana instantly showed up  'Top 10 hotels in NY' followed by the standard search results. This may need improvement, But seems good.

Taking a closer look will reveal, Cortana also has a personality!

It's not just another app which will search for info on the web. I asked Cortana questions and i got some semi-funny,semi-idiotic and semi-worth it answers! This may not be very flashy, But certainly something as much of an improvement!

Finally, I'll end this write-up with my initial impressions. Well, Cortana for Android certainly seems to be well working experiment which could yield a good result in the coming times. It will surely be very interesting to see how it racks up against its competitors in a new arena. The one we used isn't the best, But isn't final either. So that's Even-Stevens.

-Sashank Kakaraparty