Microsoft announced today that it is rolling out a new version of its Cortana personal assistant tool to Windows Insiders. The company said that the new version of Cortana will include some new features that it believes will ultimately make our lives a little easier.
The preview build of Cortana introduces automatic recognition of commitments made through email. Microsoft noted that people will commonly make a promise to do something in an email, but will often lose track of it and forget. The company said that the new build of Cortana can automatically detect when such a commitment is made.
Microsoft has also added features that help manage your calendar. Cortana will now intelligently learn “how you may uniquely like to work – including the hours you like to set meetings and those in which you are most productive.” Using this information, Cortana can tell if a meeting request comes in that is outside of your preferred hours and quickly alert you so you can plan around it or quickly request that it is rescheduled.
Microsoft said Cortana can also alert you of last-minute meeting requests, so if you’re not in the habit of checking our email after a certain hour, you won’t miss a late evening request for an early morning meeting.
“As we look at what a real-life personal assistant can do, we know we’re just scratching the surface of how Cortana can help you be more productive. We look forward to bringing you more features and scenarios that help you to achieve more,” said Marcus Ash, Group Program Manager, Cortana.
The new build of Cortana is available today to Windows Insiders, but it has only been released for en-US and en-GB. Microsoft didn’t say when other language versions would be released, but it did say that these features will eventually be available to all Windows 10 users.
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