Microsoft used to be almost as platform exclusive as Apple is but under the leadership of Satya Nadella the company has made a complete reversal of that policy and has been on a massive milti-platform conversion over the past few months. In fact, it looks like Microsoft might be bringing it’s Cortana virtual assistant to Android and iOS sometime in the near future.
It’s been a while since we last heard rumors of Microsoft’s Cortana coming to Android. Way back in June of 2014 a manager from the Windows Phone team talked about the possibility of Cortana coming to other platforms. Now we’re hearing from Microsoft’s Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research, that they are planning a bigger roll-out for Cortana later this year. Microsoft is currently planning to bring Cortana to the desktop in Windows 10, which could be the perfectly opportunity to launch on Android and iOS as well. You might be thinking “why would Microsoft bring one of the best features of Windows Phone to competing platforms?” The new Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella is focused on getting more people using Microsoft services. Just look at all the apps they already have in the Play Store.