Cortana now launches 20 percent faster on iOS, Microsoft says

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

Hey, Cortana: Speed it up!

Cortana may not enjoy the same level of tight integration on iOS as it does on Windows, but the app still has its users. And if you count yourself among them, you may notice Cortana seems a little speedier the next time you launch the app on your iPhone.

Alongside a general batch of bug fixes and performance improvements, Microsoft claims that the latest update to Cortana on iOS brings a 20 percent speed boost to its launch time.

  • Cortana now launches 20% faster! Enjoy a lightning-fast Cortana experience.
  • Bug and performance fixes for higher levels of productivity.

In absolute terms, that's definitely a hefty speed increase. However, all perceptions are relative, so the improved launch time may go unnoticed if it was already sufficiently speedy on your phone. Still, improving the launch time of an app is nothing to scoff at.

If you happen to use Cortana on iOS, you can grab the latest update to version 2.6.7 on the App Store now. And if you have yet to try the app, it's worth a look if you're already a heavy Cortana user on your PC.

See at the App Store (opens in new tab)

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the Editor in Chief for Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. Got a hot tip? Send it to daniel.thorp-lancaster@futurenet.com.

28 Comments
  • I use Cortana on all three of my Windows devices... The most used place has always been my phone. But, Cortana uses to be much better with WP8.1.... Sad, because I can only imagine how far Cortana would've been if MS kept going with development. I hope they have big plans for Andromeda.
  • when is Cortana coming to the rest of the world?
    It's been 5 years since Cortana was first released and the "Coming Soon" mantra of MSFT is getting old.
  • Seems faster
  • Wonder if we will get an article about the release of the Homepod which is poised to overtake the Invoke Feb 9
  • Only works with Apple Music at launch. So it's actually more limited than the Invoke. Because who the hell wants to use Apple Music on Windows (iTunes) That and Siri is truly hot garbage.
  • I'm curious the reception at it's price point considering the flack I saw people give the Invoke on here. I just have a strong feeling this will be front and center through holidays of this year for Apple to entrench themselves with their iPhone users.
  • At least the Apple HomePod and Google Homehub is available in more than 20 countries worldwide at launch!
  • 😬
  • Except nobody uses it
  • Well, that's not exactly a true statement. 1 million downloads and a 4.3 rating in the PlayStore alone, says otherwise. People may not use the Hey Cortona feature, but it has other passive features that do not require you to talk to her. In essence, people that have downloaded and set everything up, likely did not disable it...so, people are using it, whether passively or direct interaction.
  • 1 million downloads on 2 BILLION Android devices is effectively nobody.
  • yeah that's true. Cortana is probably only used by former Windows Phone users or anyone else who doesn't like Google Now assistant.
  • Ok but 1 million is still 1 million, that's not a trivial amount. You don't always have to be in first place to be successful
  • Microsoft were not happy to continue being third in the mobile world. so I think Microsoft wont agree with you on this
  • Would be nice to enable Cortana in all coutries, even with only the English supported language. Cant install on android device since my store is set to my local country...to be able to buy anything btw...
  • Didn't work on WM either, same problem...
  • Much interest, such wow
  • Seems faster.
    Wow much speed. awesome!!!
  • Does location based reminders not work on iOS?
  • What is the point? Wasting development resources on a competitors platform which already has a similar feature which is well embedded in their OS.
    Thinking like that, no wonder they failed W10M.
  • I moved to android after long time using windows phone. loved Cortana on Lumia 950xl but not on my android
  • But does it launch in 20% more countries?
  • And it started always crashing randomly on my Lumia 650.
  • I don’t even use Siri.  I’m not going to download and install Yet Another Annoying Voice Thing.   
  • You know I was about to come on here and complain that its still not available in Canada, then for the heck of it I just searched the App Store out of curiosity. Lo and behold it IS available now! It does give a warning when you launch it that it is currently in beta, but, progress!
  • Would love it if they could speed up launch times on android. I have a slow android phone and launching Cortana is painful. Like, sometimes 10 seconds painful. But I hate google assistant so much that I'll wait those 10 seconds.
  • Wow, wonder what they did to mess that up so bad.  Last I tried was on my S7 Edge, and it was much faster than that.
  • Good for the Apple fanboys