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Microsoft has an amazing plan to take over your iPhone or Android

Published Mar 13th, 2015 12:20PM EDT
Cortana for iPhone and Android
Image: MacMixing | YouTube

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Microsoft might be having a difficult time convincing people to buy Windows phones – though some of its latest offerings are definitely worth considering – but Reuters has found out the company has come up with a clever way of taking over your iPhone or Android device.

The company’s secret weapon is a tool that might be powerful enough to impress you and ultimately get you to embrace many other apps made by Microsoft.

FROM EARLIER: Google seriously thinks iPhone users will consider getting an Android Wear watch

According to the publication, Microsoft wants to bring its smart visual assistant, currently available on Window Phone 8.1 and coming to Windows 10 devices later this year, to iOS and Android.

The company is apparently working on a new version of Cortana “using research from an artificial intelligent project called ‘Einstein.’ ”

“This kind of technology, which can read and understand email, will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana, which we are working on now for the fall time frame,” Microsoft Research managing director Eric Horvitz told the publication.

Microsoft’s new Cortana should be the first intelligent “agent” to really anticipate your needs, according to the company, using technologies including speech recognition, search and machine learning. The product should be even better than Google Now, Reuters suggests, which already has some amazing capabilities.

These technologies aren’t necessarily breakthroughs, Microsoft says, but the company’s ability to stitch them together to offer artificial intelligence capable of better anticipating the user’s needs is apparently the real breakthrough.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.