Posted in: Mobile Services, Mobile software, Windows Phone

Cortana lands in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain

by 36 comments

After initially only being available in the US, Cortana was enabled for China and the UK too this summer. And now Microsoft’s virtual assistant is making it to four more countries: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Today, Microsoft has announced that it will start rolling out an update for the Windows Phone Developer Preview Program which will make Cortana available in these new places as an “alpha”.

So this is meant mainly for developer testing. “Most” of the features of the beta version (which is the one you can use in the US, UK, and China) are in this alpha, but some are missing or coming soon. Flight tracking is not available for the alpha, and transit data is limited to large cities and will expand later on. Reference data is also not in, but it will be soon.

On the plus side, Cortana will show European football league data from the Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and La Liga. Her personality has been tailored for each new market and language, complete with local “chit chat” and jokes. This will hopefully make it feel more culturally relevant.

Cortana will make it to beta status in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain at some point in the future, Microsoft promises.

Source

Comments

Rules for posting