Cortana allegedly launching in China on July 30

Last week, we reported that Microsoft is close to launching Cortana in the UK and China, with a release scheduled for later this month. While no official date was provided by Microsoft, we are now hearing that the voice assistant will make its debut in China on July 30.

According to invites sent out to the Chinese media, Microsoft will be hosting a Cortana launch event in Beijing next week. The invitation for the event includes a Windows Phone placard with Cortana logo and the words "China, here I come" underneath.

Along with China, Microsoft is scheduled to bring the voice assistant to users in the UK. Before you guys inevitably ask us as to when Cortana will hit India, all that we know regarding the matter is that there is no launch date yet, and that Microsoft is actively working on bringing the service to customers in the subcontinent soon.

Users from the UK and China, are you excited about the imminent launch of Cortana in your country?

Thanks hengxiang32401 for the tip!

Source: Zol

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia for Android Central, Windows Central's sister site. When not reviewing phones, he's testing PC hardware, including video cards, motherboards, gaming accessories, and keyboards.

164 Comments

About time for the UK :)
+930
But they said it would be out in the UK in a couple weeks just after the beta launch. Which was what two months ago?
That's still a couple of weeks.
Nope they only said "soon" and "coming months" as far as dates are concerned.
Well its getting out in Chinese,same thing:)
This amount of time passing between launch in the U.S. and U.K. is perfectly acceptable. Even a month or two longer would still have been fine.
It's other countries that will pose a problem. Finally convincing Germany, and keeping Italy and South Africa on board should also be a top priority... think of this moment again, when we revisit this topic 6 to 12 months from now.
But will UK users have the ability to change speech output to a UK accent? Otherwise we may as well carry on using the current beta that we have been using for months already.
Well even though Cortana it's not available here in my country, at least now I'll select UK as the country to get metric system.
Same here!
Exactly!!!
Likewise, being English and living in Australia it may even work properly with my accent
Pardon?
I wonder what the odds are it will still force miles on you for distance? Though, I'll probably give it a shot as my HTC 8S will switch regions to basically anything except the US.
Yepp, Same here.. It is the only reason I want UK supported so badly.
We use miles here in the UK.
And we also use Celsius here. :)
Well you still use miles but you are supposed to use the metric system. and that is not just because the imperial system is a pile of sheit
No it's not, it's perfectly understandable if you have grown up with it. We are being forced into the metric world because of European law. I am quite happy to use either and have grown up with both. 25.4 mm is an inch - work in an engineering environment and it's like being bi-lingual. The majority of us are bi-system users here, as easily weighing in pounds and ounces as kilos and grammes. But when it comes to km, that's just nonsense for me. I can gauge a mile or 70 mph, but not the equivalent in km or kph! The kids of tomorrow are just going metric (I see it in my son's homework) and that's fine but there's still a generation or two of Imperialists. Don't expect KM on road signs any time in the near future.
weighting in pounds ounces or stones.. and they all dont make sense together in more than one dimension. well i am not going to discuss this topic here now.. metric system is the superior system and the whole world knows..
I'm with Chris on this one. I've grown up using both systems and like the fact I can swap and change measurements to suit. As far as I'm concerned neither system is superior.
Nah best of both worlds, fahrenheight is difficult in logic, but miles I find much easier to comprehend. Also an easier change to undertake - we'd have to replace every road sign in the UK. We've also got the best plugs. 3-pin is much sturdier, they don't wobble :D
I am from germany.. our plugs dont wobble.. I can also ram my cables in your plugs just need a screwdriver for the third pin.. will not wobble either.
That third pin is the earth, so that in the event of a short circuit the current is safely conducted to ground, rather than through the user. Sticking screw drivers into the socket is f*cking madness.
Me to:) hate having to get adapters going to England! And plugs are much more compact here in Germany...
Actually we use parts of both and if you had grown up with both then you wouldn't have a problem converting between the two.
That's why I'm worried as someone in Australia wanting Cortana - the US gets you Fahrenheit and all that other rubbish, but the UK region will probably still leave me with miles when I'm wanting it fully metric.
Exactly
Hey yeah thanks for the tip. Metric for the win
Wrong, miles is.......well, miles better!
+520....... Once this hits UK, Metric system, here I come!!
+920 Croatia
What metric system do you mean? Celsius? We still use Imperial measurements as well as metric for weight, volume, dimensions and miles for distance. And of course have the date format the correct way too.
Metric + miler per hour. The US and UK are both a bit (holds my breath)... backwards (unless talking about the Cortana release, then they're both rocking it.
We just have an older generation who can't let go/succumb to French metric tyranny. So now people in Britain put petrol into their cars in litres, but drive distances in miles, to the supermarket which sells goods in metric, and when they eat it all and get fat they weigh themselves in stones. What a mess!
don't forget we buy milk in pints! :)
Ha, yes milk in pints, bottles of pop in litres. Although that seems to be changing; they still look like pints, but they're 500ml!
And our babies stubbornly refuse to be born in anything but pounds and ounces
Best comment ever!
Really?
When my children were born (3yr old and a 7 month old) we were given the weight in kilograms and we had to convert it to pounds and ounces so our parents could understand. Also, milk is sold in litres in Tesco and Asda. Has been for years now.
I remember that was the first thing I looked at when people in the UK were told they had to use metric.
That's SO backwards! Growing up in Oz it was all metric.... unless talking about width of timber (2 by 4 is a common term, that's inches although never used inches in daily life).
Shame we can't just let the past go. At the same time though it doesn't hurt to know the conversions. For some reason I now prefer HP over KW for IC engines.
I've also been waiting for Cortana to support the metric system, which is what the vast majority of the world uses. The user should have the option to choose which measurement system to use.
I don't know why I'm up at 3:00 AM, but this is still great news.
Yeah this is good news... I have no idea why I'm up at this hour either.
About time too. sick off hearing advert about google app
When wil be it available for india ?
U read d article??
People these days ...
@utkarsh & @cryio stop being over smart. Aravind they mentioned it in the atricle that there is no news about launch date of cortana in india
Perhaps you need to re-read yourself. The article specifically said "don't ask about India as we don't know."
Don't ask them but there are many others on the forum who can help him with it and i read the article so better stop being over smart
Australia?
Australia doesn't get Cortana until next year, which is ridiculous
If australia get it next year.. So, when malaysia will get the cortana?
And when pakistan will... ?
Mystery...guess in 2020
Cortana will come to Pakistan with the launch of Lumia 3020 and here in India next year so you may use the Indian vesion
Major bummer Probably never use it but still would be nice to play with.
that is ridiculous. still waiting for "xbox on" to come this century. why can't we at least have the bing swipe cards that U.S get??? sux big time.
Not really, would you rather have a beta version like we'll be getting the UK? The other problem is that being reliant on Bing the backend services in australia probably aren't in place yet, outside the US and UK Bing just plain sucks.
being a wp fan it is depressing if the backend service for bing isn't in place in Australia. I can live with the app gap (I have an iPhone as well and the app gap doesn't exist for me personally) but the backend services is the realisation that the platform is years behind ios and android in oz. all I can do is rant while I wait for my 930 to turn up in the next few days.
Unfortunately, Microsoft forgot about the rest of the world and now they are scrambling to get the backend services in place for Bing so they can release Cortana everywhere. Most people forget that Cortana isn't just what you see on your phone, there are a lot of backend services that need to be implemented in other countries to allow the part on your phone to work properly.
Bing sucks in the UK! None of the additional features have been added (social stuff for example) and we don't get bing rewards either. Think its the same everywhere outside the US?
Yet in most places they only have basic searches. Here in the UK we have a lot more of Bing services, not all of them, but most of them. Not really concerned about Bing Rewards myself as it isn't essential to use Cortana.
You can use the UK Cortana. Got the same excent... overall? :)
Depends on how well the tech handles accents. US always seems to interpret the English accents as either cockney or the queens English. Its a lot more varied than that. So would be similar for the aussie accent too. These things rarely understand me, I don't think I'll be using cortana in public.
Really?
Did anyone know .. When it will lunch in Egypt ?
Lunch?...around 1 o clock :P
Lol..
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WIN!!
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Mohamed I'm sure the African countries will get it like next year in SA even the CYAN has not released to us its been a week since Microsoft released it.
Ikhona for i 925 yaka MTN ne country variant. Mese kube ne 625 eyi country variant. Kusele ukulinda wona vele ama network. Usho ingathi umhlaba wonke usuyitholile. Bayazifanela nje nabo.
Lol :-D
Cortana，中国欢迎你！
My favourite dish!
Really looking forward to using Cortana. V excited
Will it be Hindi in India ??
Ill forget hindi if it sounds like the hindi in ATM machine :P
I guess it would be English as the regional settings for India have English as the language. But, then again, Hindi is there too.
Hindi??? But why?
I guess Modi effect :)
How about INDIA. We got more windowsphone users here as per ur database
Please read the whole article... Omg...
By the way, yes, you have a lot of Windows Phone users, but remember Cortana is also here to get more NEW people to use WP... Indian people is already aware of how great the OS is ;-)
read the article ;)
Cortana in India will be available in 2016, it's certain. Read the MS forum, engineers provided the date.
How about other country?
How about in the philippines?
Though I'm Chinese, I'll still continue using the English Cortana until the Cantonese version releases.我最憎讲普通话。几时出广州话版 Cortana?
Wow... What!!! How many people speak english in china... Wasn't this supposed to be released. In English speaking countries first. Like the UK. Australia etc.
Cough money making exercise Xbox politics cough
:):(:):(
So we are assuming that the UK gets it on the 30th too?
None of my uk friends have told that they hear something like that. Maybe its in the queue.
I would guess it'll hit the UK on the 29th. Firstly, Marcus Ash mentioned it would come 'for the developer preview'. The Developers Preview updates, are usually published in the UK on a Tuesday - Microsoft's standard Update Day. So the 29th. Also: All updates are published at 12.00 (midday) EST (Eastern Standard Time), which in the UK is 18.00 BST (British Summer Time), which is 0.00 (midnight) CST (China Standard Time) in China. Being a midnight release time in China would make it the 30th as the release date there, but the 29th in the UK
Thanks for the information.
Chinese rules the world that's why mikocok launch in chinese..
Surely it could come to aus/nz with England being supported?
How's the backend services for Bing in Australia?
Oh great news....
That must mean Microsoft is very confident of the back-end Bing speech recognition service.
For Arabic language version Cortana will have to wear the burka because if she's not she will be accused of Haram
Lol
Many a true word said in jest. Perhaps they'll send the Phone away to have the power socket sewn up. (I can't believe the things which come to mind sometimes :-)
Hmm. Now please relese for others soon.
No date for UK launch. China market is more lucrative, you know
+1
I would assume it would be this week for the UK as China is supposed to be a week later.
I love the fact people are assuming that this will be coming to the UK at the same time. There is no mention of it that they must be released at the same time in the report apart from that both countries are due soon. I wouldn't count your chickens yet.
Yes, but it was announced last week that Cortana would come to UK in less than two weeks, ie. August 1st at the latest.
Earlier news and statements by the developers indicated that the UK and Chinese Cortana were being released at the same time, with a possible delay of one week for China.
Great news for the Chinese Windows phone lovers. UK is next and most probably India comes succeeding.
It's coming to the UK first with China, possibly, a week later.
Followed by Nigeria
UK. Zzzzzzzzzz. white 930
Yeah its good to be up to date, but the buzz has faded somewhat. Also expect to have to talk in a faux American accent for cortana to understand me if she's anything like Kinect.
But when it will receive to India????
Malaysia needs Cortana badly...
I wonder if Ireland will get Cortana together with UK? or users in Ireland will have to wait too :/
I changed my region to U.S. to try out Cortana and then back again fairly soon afterwards. I can understand why some people are excited but I suspect I'm just not the sort of guy who talks to his phone without there being a person on the other end of it. In summary, then, "meh".
Totally agree. I've never been a fan of voice assistants and Cortana isn't anything special over the other ones out there.
Harish, you are from India right?
I'm looking forward to the Cortana release. I'm keen to see how much of my general 'information flow' can now be exposed by Cortana, and whether it can streamline the way I consume that data. Also nice will be the additional functionality Cortana unlocks like Quiet Hours for example :)
Great that MS are doing stuff with Cortana, but talking to your phone? Really.. I don't see the fascination. I already tried Cortana. Turned her off after 10 minutes..... Says to phone
"Question - MS.. Tell me a joke?"
"Answer - Cortana!!?"
You should open your mind :)
I used Cortana for 10 minutes and realised how brilliant an idea. Cortana works by voice on long press and manually by short press, plus information sources can be added for quick access etc etc
Good. All I wanted to know is whether Microsoft is actively working to bring Cortana to India. It is, so I am content to wait. I hope by the time it comes here, it will be updated in a comprehensive manner leaving aside some bugs, which will inevitably creep in while using it for local content.
Second largest wp market still waiting....India
But when will it come to Mars? Seriously people, only UK and China this year, otherwise we'd be the first to know, trust WPCentral! I'm with you but don't waste your time posting here, go to MS forums/uservoices if you want to be heard by the right people!
hahaha. I was wondering that too when will Cortana hit Mars
Soon ... sorry did I say that out loud :P
Brazil needs cortana.....i need cortana portuguese version......
When it will be launched in India?"
Australia :'(
An article on here the other day said Cortana will hit the UK first followed shortly by China so fingers crossed. But I wonder how we will get it, after all Cortana is already built in on the preview its just hidden due to regional settings. With Cortana being server based there is no need for an update on our phone. So will it just appear when the switch is flicked on the server?
We may have to reboot our phones due to a feature change but we won't have an update to enable it.
Cheers neo158 I guessed something along those lines, I think a lot of reboots coming up shortly lol
If you do a phone search for Quiet Hours or Cortana you can access the settings, so they are there but the server needs to communicate the change in features.
Hahaha.The bit about the indians asking when Cortana is coming over there.was funny! :D
Still waiting in Australia. Although I could change my region to UK when it launches that doesn't help the billing issues that occur with the app store. Oh well we're used to getting screwed over in Australia by receiving things last or at greatly inflated prices.
Need Cortana as soon as possible here in India.. Yes she understands 9 out of 10 times.. But she has a problem with pronouncing and understanding Indian names.. So using people specific reminders is an irritating task.. Hope it comes soon.. May be around December..
+730
+July30
Been to 3 Chinese cities last month, and didn't see a single Windows Phone user there. It's ios or Android from Chinese brands.
Someone please explain it to me,
After U.S , India is the 2nd biggest market share for M.S, so after U.S v should get cortana. Why other countries getting it way before us.
Please tell me someone..
Total wild guess, language?
Perhaps its just difficult to do. After all India has how many languages and how many regional accents? The UK is probably getting it quick because it is so close to the US version.
2016, it's certain.
What about India?
According to computer,Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer, but how Microsoft does it first for China & then India??? Microsoft you just do partially ?? You LL go to hell unless you leave this type nature. Mind it , mobile platform is just like a dustbin which many Indians keeping alive without owning a google phone by doing a sacrifice, and you nonsense reward them with such partiality. Shame shame ....
I was just wondering when cortana would come to India. India has the highest count of WP users don't you know ;)
Microsoft is definitely working hard.. I am expecting Cortana's India launch soon..!!
I'll believe it when I see it, especially since 8.1 is still not available here yet in China.
Please make for India
Will preview of developer app gets new update, I meant the app.
God forbid I could use Cortana soon
Fuck Chinese scum. They don't deserve Cortana sounding all retarded like in that crap of a language. But it's all about the Chairman Mao's I guess...
You seem to forget that Microsoft China are handling Cortana in China, not Microsoft US.
Racist? Careful, I happen to be a Canadian living in China, and my wife is Chinese.
Microsoft hates Canada
I would assume that Canada would probably be after the UK and China as French would need to be added as well.
Finally! Was waiting for it!

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