After releasing teasers after teasers on Youtube, comparing with different digital assistants like Siri and Google Now, Microsoft's digital assistant for Windows phone, Cortana, proves that its your best choice as it goes global.
The Windows Phone 8.1 voice-enabled assistant has only been available in Australia, Canada, China, India, United Kingdom and the United States.
But now, Cortana is ready to take on more countries, specifically, Europe, as it learns French, Italian, German and Spanish.
Group program manager for Microsoft Cortana, Marcus Ash, revealed in a Dec. 5 blog post that Microsoft is "rolling out an update to the Windows Phone Developer Preview Program that makes Cortana available in France, Italy, Germany and Spain as an 'alpha'."
"Alpha means that Cortana is new to these countries, most of the features in the beta version are available but some are missing or coming soon," Ash wrote.
"For example, flight tracking is not available at this time for alpha," Ash said. "Transit data is currently limited to larger cities and will expand as we have more data. Additionally, reference data (e.g. "How tall is Mt. Everest") is also not available - but we're working hard to enable this soon!"
Ash also explained Microsoft's decision to limit the alpha to the Windows Phone Developer Preview Program by saying that the company requires "help from the community to use and speak to Cortana in order to improve the speech and language recognition models for each of the new languages."
"By working with her, you will help to improve her conversational understanding and also help us improve her intelligence-the breadth of answers she can provide and the categories she's aware of-so she can truly help you throughout your day," continued Ash.
"We have also worked hard to tailor Cortana's personality in each language (with local chit chat and jokes) to make her more locally and culturally relevant (i.e. make sure she fits in!)," the software giant said. "Cortana will also show European football (or as we Americans call "soccer") league data, including Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1, and La Liga."
Meanwhile, there are rumors over the internet that the company is preparing Cortana for her tablet and desktop debut.
