Microsoft says Cortana is coming to the UK "Soon"

Until now, Siri and Google Now have had all the fun, being bossed about by a variety of British accents while Microsoft’s voice-activated personal assistant Cortana was stuck in the US, twiddling her thumbs.

But now it looks like UK users might finally have the chance to take her for a spin, most likely after the Windows phone 8.1 update due on June 24th. The company posted a photo on their UK Twitter account and Facebook page showing a close-up of a Windows phone with the Cortana logo on the screen and the caption “Soon”.

Cortana launched in beta in the US in beta in April, and in his Reddit AMA earlier this month, Windows Phone boss Joe Belfiore promised that Microsoft was working on rolling out the service to other countries soon. Or as he put it, “She tells us she’d like to travel.” He also mentioned China as a priority, and said the service would then be rolled out to Canada and Australia.

The delay is due to tweaking accent recognition for different countries and making sure local content is accurate. Naturally, Microsoft claims that Cortana, which is powered by Bing, is more
accurate than its competitors.

Image via @windowsphoneuk.