If you’re one of those (weird) people who prefer to use Cortana as their personal digital assistant on their Android device, you probably have been missing that “Hey Cortana” feature that they removed late last year due to some conflict with Android’s system. But now, the latest update to the app is apparently bringing back this feature, but the catch is that it will only be available within the Cortana app itself, which might probably defeat the purpose of having it in the first place.
The advantages to having “Hey Cortana” at your beck and call, just like Android’s own “Ok Google” is that whatever you’re doing on your smartphone, you know you only have to utter the magic phrase and suddenly it will provide you with an answer or do a task for you. But now, you will only be able to access it when you’re on the Cortana app itself. You can probably still do all the the things, like schedule appointments, look for contacts, add reminders, etc, but only within the app.
When Cortana, which is of course from Microsoft, was first introduced for Android devices, it did have the “Hey Cortana” feature available. But they had to pull it out from the app as several users complained that it wasn’t working properly due to a “bug”. It had to do with “Hey Cortana” and “Ok Google” being too similar that the device’s built-in microphone became confused as to which one to follow.
They were able to apparently fix this bug, but only to the extent of allowing users to access it within the app. The update, version 1.7.1.1044, also brings continued battery usage optimization, as well as “easier access to the voice button”. You can update the Cortana app from the Google Play Store.
VIA: Neowin
