It seems these days Microsoft is working harder than ever to make their vision of one cohesive ecosystem a reality. Consider combining work teams like the Windows and Windows Phone duos, Outlook and Outlook.com duos while implementing a massive restricting seemed to be phase one. With recent acquisitions, seeded developer builds and leaked screenshots it looks like step two is porting services and functionality from one product category to another. Earlier this week, we reported the details of Cortana on desktops, and today it seems she’s moving beyond simply being the witty digital assistant that can grab you internet information, but becoming the highly functional office assistant that will help you multi-task while editing documents with voice commands.
Microsoft is reported to be working on a “Work Assistant” app that can open, edit, and share documents using voice commands. This Work Assistant is designed to use Cortana (or at the every least, Bing’s extensive computational learning) as its backend. Sources are reporting that eventually the plan is to integrate Cortana into office fully across mobile and desktop platforms.
Excuse me. Did we just hear “across mobile platforms”?
As shocking as that news is to die hard Windows Phone fans, it really shouldn’t be. A Business Insider report had Microsoft’s Julie Larson-Green confirming such a notion back in November.
While the news of Cortana’s extended blossoming into the Microsoft ecosystem may delight most Windows users, the idea of her becoming available on other platforms has always been a sore spot for the beleaguered Windows Phone fans who are finding less and less excuses to cling to the platform these days.
Further reading: Assistant, Cortana, Microsoft, Office, Windows, Windows Phone
