Why Microsoft needs to unify the many faces of Cortana

Cortana on Android

Microsoft's personal banana Cortana is getting a new abode this calendar week on Android. The Microsoft Launcher for Android (beta) now has Cortana built in, and information technology got a design revamp. Of course, being Microsoft and Cortana, the feature is region-restricted to simply a handful of countries including the U.South., UK, Canada, Australia, and China.

1 of the more heady aspects of the Cortana integration – which is very well done – is the updated UI, which is now cleaner. This design contrasts with the existing Cortana app for Android and iOS, which is more reliant on the former "card" interface. Both contrast fifty-fifty more with the current version for Windows 10.

While platform variation is to be expected – even encouraged – Microsoft needs to unify its Cortana user experience beyond devices better if information technology expects broader user adoption.

Embracing platform diverseness ... merely not likewise much

Microsoft's new Cortana for its Android launcher (right) is much nicer looking than the dedicated Cortana app (left).

Microsoft has waxed and waned in the by between a single, unified UI design for its apps and services to more tailored ones that better fit into specific platforms. This shift in design philosophy was expressed profoundly in Skype, which for many years looked similar the PC desktop version, then shifted endless times with various changes in design.

To exist fair, the arroyo of tailoring something like Cortana for Android is welcome. While Microsoft idealists believe the company should plow Android into a pseudo-Windows Phone with Live tiles, libation heads accept prevailed. Instead, Microsoft's apps for Android encompass Google's blueprint choices to blend in better.

The problem right at present, even so, is the different looks of Cortana within Android. The Cortana app and Cortana voice recognition screen expect very unlike from the new Microsoft Launcher version (the new one seems way better).

Cortana on Android (left) and iOS (right). They look similar, merely neither are very attractive.

Perhaps this is role of a one thousand scheme where Microsoft volition align its Cortana, Bing, and Launcher apps with the same Cortana experience – and maybe that will even look like Windows 10 – just knowing the company's past gives me interruption.

Other issues similar region restrictions, or the inability to wire deeper into Android. like "Hey, Cortana." is more than reflective of the difficulties in making an assistant for a competing platform. Amazon's Alexa volition face like problems on Windows x whenever that app rolls out on select PCs.

Cortana's look needs to wow users

The wait of Cortana on Windows x is very different than iOS or Android.

Finally, while Cortana is growing in functionality, the version for Windows 10 needs a blueprint makeover. Microsoft is expected to shift Cortana out of search into the Action Center and create a more chat-driven user experience, giving the company a meaning opportunity to just that.

What should Cortana wait like? Opinions vary, but I'd argue the digital assistant had its heyday in design back when it debuted on Windows Phone in 2022.

Cortana is far from expressionless as Microsoft plans to make an 'Intelligent Os'

Microsoft later shifted its design to a more dynamic carte du jour system with Windows ten for PC. That move also permit Cortana's cloud results "live" on other non-native devices by dynamically scaling to all resolutions. The result, however, is quite wearisome and unattractive with the Android and iOS versions, which at least look similar, appearing very outdated and frankly ugly.

All of this is a chip ironic, as Microsoft last year made a big push almost its Fluent Blueprint System, which is now steadily creeping into Windows 10. Even the Microsoft Launcher for Android has acrylic (blur) elements, mark the first case of the company's new design language headed to a competing platform.

Only what about Cortana?

Surely a futuristic, A.I. driven personal banana could at least wait the part. For all the gruff Apple tree's Siri gets information technology is at least pleasant to wait at.

Designing an assistant that is both piece of cake to navigate but also flexible enough to piece of work on rival OSes is not easy. Only this is the lot Microsoft is embracing. Let's hope it tin can refocus, realign, and reimagine Cortana for 2022 and beyond. Functionality and ambition volition always outpace what digital administration tin do, but at the very to the lowest degree the company tin can wow us with some eye candy in the meantime.