While iOS has its Siri voice for certain Apple devices, it’s been rumored that the Halo character Cortana, voiced by Jen Taylor (whose voice has also appeared in Dota 2 , Left 4 Dead 2 and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin ), will be the Siri equivalent for Microsoft’s Bing app.
Cropping up on MSFTnerd , Cortana’s voice will launch in beta on the Lumia mobile series for US app developers this coming April. The service is said to expand to Microsoft’s Bing app for iPhones in the US market this fall, and will later be extended to US Xbox One and Windows users in 2015 with Microsoft’s Threshold plan, a maneuver that’ll apparently streamline, mass-update and unify Microsoft’s operating systems. It is also said that the service will launch internationally by spreading out over the course of 2015 and 2016.
According to Polygon , this isn’t the first mention of the voice of Cortana being used in Microsoft software. Rumors of Cortana’s voiced being used for voice recognition allegedly began last fall, where it was said that the character’s voice would be coming to Windows Phone 8.1 first.
The new improvements that will apparently come with Cortana’s voice will allow for Windows Phone’s voice recognition to better understand more natural commands and be interacted with like Apple’s Siri. Don’t get too excited about talking to the Master Chief’s AI companion, as an official statement on the matter has yet to be revealed. For now, it is still a rumor.
While it is a cute gimmick to have the quirky Cortana accompany you on your real-life journeys, I think it’ll be something that’ll get old quite quickly. Sure, the initial hype willbe as high as a kite, but I think its shine may dim rather quickly. We’ll bring you updates on this matter should they reach our ears.