**A First Look at Cortana for Android: A Mixed Bag**

As I prepared to review Cortana for Android, I had done some testing beforehand, and one thing that struck me was the number of voice responses available on the app. Compared to Cortana for Windows phone, which I had used extensively, the voice responses on Android were significantly lower. This is not surprising, given that Cortana for Android is currently in beta mode.

**Testing Cortana's Capabilities**

I decided to put Cortana for Android through its paces and see what it could do. One of my first questions was "what time is it in Venezuela?" The response came back quickly: the time in Venezuela was 6:25 p.m. It was a simple question, but one that demonstrated Cortana's ability to provide timely information.

Another test I ran was to find the nearest Costco location. Cortana provided me with five locations near my current position, which were remarkably consistent with results from Google Maps. However, it's worth noting that Cortana also brought up Yelp reviews for each location, which may not be entirely relevant for a store like Costco where the experience is relatively uniform.

**Understanding Cortana's Limitations**

One of the most interesting aspects of using Cortana on Android was its willingness to provide answers, no matter how bizarre they might seem. When I asked "will I need an umbrella tomorrow?" the response came back with a prediction that it would be sunny and not rainy. However, when I repeated the question later, Cortana responded by saying it was hard to say for sure. This highlighted one of Cortana's key limitations: its inability to provide definitive answers to every question.

**Comparing Cortana to Google Now**

One of the biggest questions on my mind as I used Cortana was how it compared to Google Now. While both apps provided similar information, there were some notable differences. For example, when asking about the stock price of Microsoft, Cortana and Google Now gave slightly different answers (although in this case, the results were very close). However, one key advantage of Google Now is its ease of use: whereas I had to open an app to ask Cortana questions, Google Now is easily accessible through the search bar.

**Cortana's Personal Touch**

Despite some limitations, I found that using Cortana on Android was often...enlightening. At one point, I asked Cortana "will you marry me?" and received a response that read: "I honestly don't think that's in the cards for us." It was a strange response, but also somewhat charming. This highlighted one of Cortana's key strengths: its ability to have a bit of personality and humor.

**Conclusion**

Overall, I was impressed with Cortana for Android, despite some limitations. While it may not be as polished or stable as Cortana on Windows phone, the app showed promise and demonstrated a willingness to learn and improve. As it moves into its final release phase, I'm eager to see how Microsoft has addressed some of these issues. Will Cortana become my go-to app for voice assistants? Only time will tell.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's up guys it's n here for Android authority and yes in front of us here is Cortana which is Microsoft's voice assistant and their answer to Google Now on Android and Siri on the Apple iPhone if you've been following Android authority.com you'll have read that Cortana is coming to Android and today we've actually had a first look at Cortana for Android thanks to the leak now in front of us here is the Galaxy S6 Edge we' got Microsoft Cortana running on it it's not the official version of the app so there may be some bugs and it may not have the smooth performance that we expect from the final app but yeah Cortana for Android is here orbe in leak form so we thought we'd bring you a quick Hands-On and also look at how it compares to Google Now right so we'll kick things off with Cortana itself on the Galaxy S6 Edge so when you first install Cortana for Android it asks you to sign in with your Microsoft account which is your Hotmail account or any other email address you've got registered with with a Microsoft account but also ask you your name and we'll touch on that later on let's first give a look at the app itself when you do launch Cortana you'll see it's got a very Google Now like interface it gives you cards so here we've got today's trending topics recommended News top stories and the latest in health news we've got the weather and there's a lot more and what you'll see here is a lot of this is all powered by Bing whilst obviously Google Now is whilst obviously Google Powers Google Now youd make sense that micros that Cortana is powered by Bing from the the app you can customize all of this as well which we'll touch on now first let's swipe in from the left and you can see here we've got an interface so you can see we've got options for home notebook reminders and feedback and obviously a big tag that says that reminds you that actually Cortana is still in beta mode Let's go into the notebook because everyone has one of these and it's actually what really makes cortan unique The Notebook allows you to tell Cortana more about yourself and by doing so it gives Cortana more information to make itself more useful for you I think that sounds just about simple enough I'll show you what I mean if we go into eat and drink it tells you would you like to leave the eat and drink cards on would you like talk recommendations from for Square Restaurant recommendations but it also asks you more information about your preferences so in this case how far are you willing to go well I'm only willing to go within driving distance go back tap add and then it knows it will recommend places that are within driving distance what type of atmosphere do I want am I after a romantic night out or am I after a bit more of a kid-friendly night out well I will tell you now that I would much rather have romantic night out so we'll hit a ad there as well next it tells you your preference for price range now this is really useful because if you're working with a limited budget the last thing you want is a bunch of recommendations for restaurants that might take up an entire week's salary for me I'm willing to go with either but I tell you what the average person is either going to go low price or mid-range we'll go with mid-range again once you select one you do have to press add good thing is say I've actually gone actually I want more I want us to change this it's I can tap back on it tap this and it lets me change which type of range I want and then hit save or you can delete the preferences as well now it ask me about Cuisine and I mean what type of thing do you want do want to go out to a bar on grill do you want to go to a barbecue are you a buffet kind of person Chinese delicatess and din French Greek Indian Italian Japanese Korean Latin American Mediterranean Mexican and so on there's quite a lot of options here with enough to suit anyone I'm Indian and I am partial to a bit Indian food but actually do you know what I also really like is I actually really like Chinese food and sometimes I'm partial to just going to a bar and grill where you can have a nice meal and have a bit of a a drink up at the same time now it tells me obviously what how far at atmosphere now frequency how often am I really likely to go out well I do go out quite a bit so I'm not going to choose never because well it would never give me any recommendations I could choose occasionally or rarely I'll go with occasionally and if you're someone who goes out a lot and eats out a lot choose frequently now we hit save so that's just my settings for eating and drinking Cortana is about more than just eating and drinking it lets me specify things like events Finance getting around getting around is really useful because this lets you change everything to your customized needs there's no point giving you traffic updates if you're not a driver and the good thing is you can specify it to tell you when it's time to leave which is something that Google Now does as well but remember C and bet mode to have this option available already is actually really really good thing next we got traffic updates to my favorite places home work etc notify me when it's time to go to work or head home really useful because you know if you're at work who doesn't want to know when it's time to go home I think the question should be better if you're at work and your phone's telling you it's time to go home why have you not left already moving on when using public transport tells you would you like Transit upd Sync Transit updates to your calendar events notify me when it's time to go to my calendar event this useful this Fe feature is really really useful because you may have it set that I have got half an hour to get somewhere but whoops traffic a massive traffic means it's going to take you an hour you would have no way of knowing that but actually with Cortana and obviously Google now Siri you do know then it also says Transit updates my favorite places notify me it's time to go to work or head home again when using public transport versus driving obviously that's the key difference here I obviously do a lot of driving well I do have a car and I drive so I have all this tck and I don't use a lot of public transport but if you have public transp transport you might want to change those options and at the bottom here you can tap on the driving and say I prefer to drive or Transit and that will affect your settings within Cortana press save let's go back go into the notebook and we'll choose some more options so the other options include movies and TV music news sports I'm a sports fan all sports card notifications sure score updates for your teams why not and show upcoming games and matches definitely add a team that's the main thing now let's look at what teams are a ailable if I search for Manchester United which is a big team Manchester United EPL hit add what about if I go for something a little bit smaller how about my local team northward nope it's not available so we're only looking at Big teams here obviously we'll T type in the Jacksonville Jaguars cuz I know that team and let's be honest everybody wherever in the world has heard of the New York Yankees which aren't there but we'll choose the Giants whoops my bad moving back hit save and that gives you sports updates now if I go back to the home screen of quana what you'll see here is it says what can I do to help you now today's trending stories I have an upcoming reminder which I've set which I'll show you afterwards today's trending stories today's recommended news today's top headlines latest and health use weather right now pretty rag bug standard but obviously once you get to use Cortana a bit more it knows more about you and once you really dig down and customize everything to exactly how you want it to be that's exactly what you kind of need especially with if I go back into travel you can add flights trip plans and all of that as well and the best thing is Cortana will give you up-to-date flight status which is really really useful the other side to Cortana is just like Siri and Google Now voice searching using your voice to control the app asking it to do things for you asking you to look up things for you I could show you C on its own but we're going to give you a quick comparison how it Compares in a real world test although it's in beta against Google Now which has probably been doing this a lot longer back in a sec and I'm back and on the right here we've got the Galaxy S6 Ed with Cortana like we had a few seconds ago but on the left it's joined by the vone smart Ultra 6 which you'll see a review of very very shortly but it's a phone I really really like which is running Google Now and that's the latest version of Google Now we could give you some demos but the simplest way is we're going to hit the voice button on each of these and then see how they handle with our various tasks I've got a bunch of questions I'm just going to do this on the Fly let's see what happens what's the weather in New York it's 26° in sunny in New York it's currently and mostly sun in New York okay not bad now they're both connected to 4G interestingly the smart Ultra 6 is actually on a slightly slower Network and yeah it seems to be a lot quicker again it's worth remembering Cortana is in beta and it's doing surprisingly well for a thing that's just in beta that Microsoft probably aren't expecting anyone to actually go and test at this present time anyway what's the next question who's the first lady of the United States according to Wikipedia the current first lady is Michelle Obama at present there are five living former first ladies Rosaline Carter wife of Jimmy Carter Nancy Reagan Widow of Ronald Reagan Barbara Bush wife of and there you see it on the left we've got Google Now which went to give me the entire Wikipedia description which I probably didn't actually need and Coto just said United States first lady is Michelle Obama with a link to Wikipedia which is probably the better implementation at least in my opinion the next question we've got and this is one I've already tested but it's one I've tested before and there's a reason I tested this but I'll show you this afterwards when was the Magna Cart assigned June 15th 1215 according to History Channel granted by the king of England to agree group of rebellious Barons and signed on the plane at runny me on June 15th 12:15 the Magna carter is widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in history right there is a reason I asked this question and that is because I've done some testing of Cortana previously and my testing was with Cortana on Windows phone now when you ask Cortana on Windows phone when the mag cart was signed you get June 19th 20 12:15 which is technically the correct answer as well as June 15 but that's an entire different story The reason I chose this is because obviously I've done some testing of Cortana before I bought you this video and the biggest thing I've noticed is the number of voice responses on Cortana for Android is a lot lower than the voice responses available when you use the same searches in Cortana for Windows phone again it's worth remembering Cortana for Android is in beta mode which makes a huge difference to all of this let's move on and ask another question what time is it in Venezuela the time in Venezuela is 6:25 p.m. it's 6:25 p.m. in Venezuela really quick both are really simple but you can do things like that next up where's the nearest Costco here are addresses for Costco here here are five locations for Costco near you now it's quite interesting they both give us the exact same answers pretty much what is very simp interesting though is that Cortana brings in Yelp reviews not so useful with Costco cuz let's be honest you're pretty much going to get roughly similar experience in most Costco what it does going to be interesting for is restaurants whereas Google will give you reviews when you go into it in a bit more detail Catana tells you there in a heartbeat with stars what the reviews are in this case the Costco and Watford has got four four out of five stars thanks to 14 Yelp reviews I've got another one for you will I need an umbrella tomorrow no rain is not expected tomorrow in P the forecast is 24° and mostly sunny okay Cortana that's very strange cuz you definitely recognized what I asked we'll ask ortana again will I need an umbrella tomorrow it's hard to say for sh here's the forecast for tomorrow okay so that's quite interesting we had to ask the question again but really strange but they've all come up really similar think going Google is no you do not need an umbrella why would you ask such an absurd question whereas Cortana is like it's it's hard to say what you might have just heard is Cortana referred to me by my name although it's not n n it's n but hey I can forgive the fact that you at least pronounced it as n not some of the other stuff which one of them includes narabi which a lot of people seem to do moving on the last question I've got for these two is what is the stock price of Microsoft Microsoft Corporation closed down 0.09% down 0.9% today okay so there's a bit of a cross over there with the responses but pretty much they gave us the exact same information in fact they did except Microsoft said Google Now said it closed at 46.6 sorry it closed down 0.09% at 46.6 2 and Mark and cortan went it closed at 46.6 2 which is down 0.9% or something like that anyway you can see that it will give give you the same amount of information so there you have what was meant to be a quick look at Cortana on Android in its first earliest lead form but actually turned into quite a long video let's be honest hopefully you found this enjoyable a little bit entertaining I do try even if I may not always get it right and informative but the main thing to do was to show you that actually C on for Android is really not very bad we'd expect that the final release version is going to be a little bit more stable and a little bit better than this but overall Microsoft has done really well with their first beater app normally see we beater apps that crash and although it has crashed once performance is pretty stable sure Cortana for Android isn't as good right now as it is for Windows but that's probably to be expected hopefully this will change as it nearest release and it eventually does get released but overall I'm really quite impressed would I use Cortana over Google Now well it's quite difficult to say and the main reason is Google Now is easily a lot more easily accessible than Cortana is however there's not that's not saying that I don't mind opening an app to ask ortana questions and even just have a conversation cuz you can do things like this Cortana will you marry me I honestly don't think that's in the cards for us rejection from a computer with sass like that what more could you need thanks for watching if you found this informative enjoyed it or you just in a good mood give us a thumbs up down below don't forget to hit subscribe cuz we've got so much more content coming your way let me know what you think of Cortana for Android in the comments below and guys remember it's in beta stay tuned to Android authority.com and our channel for lots more on all the latest smartphones cuz we are your source for all things Android nhey what's up guys it's n here for Android authority and yes in front of us here is Cortana which is Microsoft's voice assistant and their answer to Google Now on Android and Siri on the Apple iPhone if you've been following Android authority.com you'll have read that Cortana is coming to Android and today we've actually had a first look at Cortana for Android thanks to the leak now in front of us here is the Galaxy S6 Edge we' got Microsoft Cortana running on it it's not the official version of the app so there may be some bugs and it may not have the smooth performance that we expect from the final app but yeah Cortana for Android is here orbe in leak form so we thought we'd bring you a quick Hands-On and also look at how it compares to Google Now right so we'll kick things off with Cortana itself on the Galaxy S6 Edge so when you first install Cortana for Android it asks you to sign in with your Microsoft account which is your Hotmail account or any other email address you've got registered with with a Microsoft account but also ask you your name and we'll touch on that later on let's first give a look at the app itself when you do launch Cortana you'll see it's got a very Google Now like interface it gives you cards so here we've got today's trending topics recommended News top stories and the latest in health news we've got the weather and there's a lot more and what you'll see here is a lot of this is all powered by Bing whilst obviously Google Now is whilst obviously Google Powers Google Now youd make sense that micros that Cortana is powered by Bing from the the app you can customize all of this as well which we'll touch on now first let's swipe in from the left and you can see here we've got an interface so you can see we've got options for home notebook reminders and feedback and obviously a big tag that says that reminds you that actually Cortana is still in beta mode Let's go into the notebook because everyone has one of these and it's actually what really makes cortan unique The Notebook allows you to tell Cortana more about yourself and by doing so it gives Cortana more information to make itself more useful for you I think that sounds just about simple enough I'll show you what I mean if we go into eat and drink it tells you would you like to leave the eat and drink cards on would you like talk recommendations from for Square Restaurant recommendations but it also asks you more information about your preferences so in this case how far are you willing to go well I'm only willing to go within driving distance go back tap add and then it knows it will recommend places that are within driving distance what type of atmosphere do I want am I after a romantic night out or am I after a bit more of a kid-friendly night out well I will tell you now that I would much rather have romantic night out so we'll hit a ad there as well next it tells you your preference for price range now this is really useful because if you're working with a limited budget the last thing you want is a bunch of recommendations for restaurants that might take up an entire week's salary for me I'm willing to go with either but I tell you what the average person is either going to go low price or mid-range we'll go with mid-range again once you select one you do have to press add good thing is say I've actually gone actually I want more I want us to change this it's I can tap back on it tap this and it lets me change which type of range I want and then hit save or you can delete the preferences as well now it ask me about Cuisine and I mean what type of thing do you want do want to go out to a bar on grill do you want to go to a barbecue are you a buffet kind of person Chinese delicatess and din French Greek Indian Italian Japanese Korean Latin American Mediterranean Mexican and so on there's quite a lot of options here with enough to suit anyone I'm Indian and I am partial to a bit Indian food but actually do you know what I also really like is I actually really like Chinese food and sometimes I'm partial to just going to a bar and grill where you can have a nice meal and have a bit of a a drink up at the same time now it tells me obviously what how far at atmosphere now frequency how often am I really likely to go out well I do go out quite a bit so I'm not going to choose never because well it would never give me any recommendations I could choose occasionally or rarely I'll go with occasionally and if you're someone who goes out a lot and eats out a lot choose frequently now we hit save so that's just my settings for eating and drinking Cortana is about more than just eating and drinking it lets me specify things like events Finance getting around getting around is really useful because this lets you change everything to your customized needs there's no point giving you traffic updates if you're not a driver and the good thing is you can specify it to tell you when it's time to leave which is something that Google Now does as well but remember C and bet mode to have this option available already is actually really really good thing next we got traffic updates to my favorite places home work etc notify me when it's time to go to work or head home really useful because you know if you're at work who doesn't want to know when it's time to go home I think the question should be better if you're at work and your phone's telling you it's time to go home why have you not left already moving on when using public transport tells you would you like Transit upd Sync Transit updates to your calendar events notify me when it's time to go to my calendar event this useful this Fe feature is really really useful because you may have it set that I have got half an hour to get somewhere but whoops traffic a massive traffic means it's going to take you an hour you would have no way of knowing that but actually with Cortana and obviously Google now Siri you do know then it also says Transit updates my favorite places notify me it's time to go to work or head home again when using public transport versus driving obviously that's the key difference here I obviously do a lot of driving well I do have a car and I drive so I have all this tck and I don't use a lot of public transport but if you have public transp transport you might want to change those options and at the bottom here you can tap on the driving and say I prefer to drive or Transit and that will affect your settings within Cortana press save let's go back go into the notebook and we'll choose some more options so the other options include movies and TV music news sports I'm a sports fan all sports card notifications sure score updates for your teams why not and show upcoming games and matches definitely add a team that's the main thing now let's look at what teams are a ailable if I search for Manchester United which is a big team Manchester United EPL hit add what about if I go for something a little bit smaller how about my local team northward nope it's not available so we're only looking at Big teams here obviously we'll T type in the Jacksonville Jaguars cuz I know that team and let's be honest everybody wherever in the world has heard of the New York Yankees which aren't there but we'll choose the Giants whoops my bad moving back hit save and that gives you sports updates now if I go back to the home screen of quana what you'll see here is it says what can I do to help you now today's trending stories I have an upcoming reminder which I've set which I'll show you afterwards today's trending stories today's recommended news today's top headlines latest and health use weather right now pretty rag bug standard but obviously once you get to use Cortana a bit more it knows more about you and once you really dig down and customize everything to exactly how you want it to be that's exactly what you kind of need especially with if I go back into travel you can add flights trip plans and all of that as well and the best thing is Cortana will give you up-to-date flight status which is really really useful the other side to Cortana is just like Siri and Google Now voice searching using your voice to control the app asking it to do things for you asking you to look up things for you I could show you C on its own but we're going to give you a quick comparison how it Compares in a real world test although it's in beta against Google Now which has probably been doing this a lot longer back in a sec and I'm back and on the right here we've got the Galaxy S6 Ed with Cortana like we had a few seconds ago but on the left it's joined by the vone smart Ultra 6 which you'll see a review of very very shortly but it's a phone I really really like which is running Google Now and that's the latest version of Google Now we could give you some demos but the simplest way is we're going to hit the voice button on each of these and then see how they handle with our various tasks I've got a bunch of questions I'm just going to do this on the Fly let's see what happens what's the weather in New York it's 26° in sunny in New York it's currently and mostly sun in New York okay not bad now they're both connected to 4G interestingly the smart Ultra 6 is actually on a slightly slower Network and yeah it seems to be a lot quicker again it's worth remembering Cortana is in beta and it's doing surprisingly well for a thing that's just in beta that Microsoft probably aren't expecting anyone to actually go and test at this present time anyway what's the next question who's the first lady of the United States according to Wikipedia the current first lady is Michelle Obama at present there are five living former first ladies Rosaline Carter wife of Jimmy Carter Nancy Reagan Widow of Ronald Reagan Barbara Bush wife of and there you see it on the left we've got Google Now which went to give me the entire Wikipedia description which I probably didn't actually need and Coto just said United States first lady is Michelle Obama with a link to Wikipedia which is probably the better implementation at least in my opinion the next question we've got and this is one I've already tested but it's one I've tested before and there's a reason I tested this but I'll show you this afterwards when was the Magna Cart assigned June 15th 1215 according to History Channel granted by the king of England to agree group of rebellious Barons and signed on the plane at runny me on June 15th 12:15 the Magna carter is widely viewed as one of the most important legal documents in history right there is a reason I asked this question and that is because I've done some testing of Cortana previously and my testing was with Cortana on Windows phone now when you ask Cortana on Windows phone when the mag cart was signed you get June 19th 20 12:15 which is technically the correct answer as well as June 15 but that's an entire different story The reason I chose this is because obviously I've done some testing of Cortana before I bought you this video and the biggest thing I've noticed is the number of voice responses on Cortana for Android is a lot lower than the voice responses available when you use the same searches in Cortana for Windows phone again it's worth remembering Cortana for Android is in beta mode which makes a huge difference to all of this let's move on and ask another question what time is it in Venezuela the time in Venezuela is 6:25 p.m. it's 6:25 p.m. in Venezuela really quick both are really simple but you can do things like that next up where's the nearest Costco here are addresses for Costco here here are five locations for Costco near you now it's quite interesting they both give us the exact same answers pretty much what is very simp interesting though is that Cortana brings in Yelp reviews not so useful with Costco cuz let's be honest you're pretty much going to get roughly similar experience in most Costco what it does going to be interesting for is restaurants whereas Google will give you reviews when you go into it in a bit more detail Catana tells you there in a heartbeat with stars what the reviews are in this case the Costco and Watford has got four four out of five stars thanks to 14 Yelp reviews I've got another one for you will I need an umbrella tomorrow no rain is not expected tomorrow in P the forecast is 24° and mostly sunny okay Cortana that's very strange cuz you definitely recognized what I asked we'll ask ortana again will I need an umbrella tomorrow it's hard to say for sh here's the forecast for tomorrow okay so that's quite interesting we had to ask the question again but really strange but they've all come up really similar think going Google is no you do not need an umbrella why would you ask such an absurd question whereas Cortana is like it's it's hard to say what you might have just heard is Cortana referred to me by my name although it's not n n it's n but hey I can forgive the fact that you at least pronounced it as n not some of the other stuff which one of them includes narabi which a lot of people seem to do moving on the last question I've got for these two is what is the stock price of Microsoft Microsoft Corporation closed down 0.09% down 0.9% today okay so there's a bit of a cross over there with the responses but pretty much they gave us the exact same information in fact they did except Microsoft said Google Now said it closed at 46.6 sorry it closed down 0.09% at 46.6 2 and Mark and cortan went it closed at 46.6 2 which is down 0.9% or something like that anyway you can see that it will give give you the same amount of information so there you have what was meant to be a quick look at Cortana on Android in its first earliest lead form but actually turned into quite a long video let's be honest hopefully you found this enjoyable a little bit entertaining I do try even if I may not always get it right and informative but the main thing to do was to show you that actually C on for Android is really not very bad we'd expect that the final release version is going to be a little bit more stable and a little bit better than this but overall Microsoft has done really well with their first beater app normally see we beater apps that crash and although it has crashed once performance is pretty stable sure Cortana for Android isn't as good right now as it is for Windows but that's probably to be expected hopefully this will change as it nearest release and it eventually does get released but overall I'm really quite impressed would I use Cortana over Google Now well it's quite difficult to say and the main reason is Google Now is easily a lot more easily accessible than Cortana is however there's not that's not saying that I don't mind opening an app to ask ortana questions and even just have a conversation cuz you can do things like this Cortana will you marry me I honestly don't think that's in the cards for us rejection from a computer with sass like that what more could you need thanks for watching if you found this informative enjoyed it or you just in a good mood give us a thumbs up down below don't forget to hit subscribe cuz we've got so much more content coming your way let me know what you think of Cortana for Android in the comments below and guys remember it's in beta stay tuned to Android authority.com and our channel for lots more on all the latest smartphones cuz we are your source for all things Android n\n"