Cortana teased for UK release... 'soon'

Microsoft is teasing that Cortana will soon be coming to the UK. We're big fans of the Cortana voice assistant that comes built into Windows Phone 8.1, except for that it's currently limited to only the United States. That hasn't stopped people from working their way around the restriction, but Microsoft knows that the 6.8 billion people that live outside the USA might also want access to Cortana.

Microsoft said a few weeks back that they had plans to bring Cortana to the UK and China as part of the version 1 release (it's worth remembering that Windows Phone 8.1 is only available right now as a preview for developers). It's been quiet since then, but today the Windows Phone UK Twitter account posted this tease:

There's no way to be certain about how soon "soon" will be, though we're sure it will be, uh, soon. Indications are that a wide release for Windows Phone 8.1 with Cortana will be coming soon, though currently the next version of the Windows Phone operating system is only available on the Nokia Lumia 630.

Source: @WindowsPhoneUK; Thanks to Zapella for the tip!

Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm, and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.