As long as the new-age Windows and Windows Phone Platforms have been around, one of the its most talked about feature has easily been surrounding the company's highly touted digital assistant Cortana. As it seems, Microsoft might have bigger plans with Cortana at the helm going ahead.
Going by the reports, Microsoft and Satya Nadella are working at bringing the company's digital assistant Cortana to Office. This is a yet new drive for Nadella and Co. going ahead with its 'mobile-first, cloud-first' approach to the industry.
However, that the digital assistant will be ported over to Office might not come as a big shock to the Microsoft faithfuls. As reported by ZDNet earlier, Bill Gates has been involved with the "Work Assistant" app creation.
Reportedly, Work Assistant is "being developed by Microsoft's Digital Life + Work group that is a part of Applications and Services Group (ASG) run by Qi Lu."
However, a fairly new report on the matter from The Verge states that Microsoft is testing out a Work Assistant app that has been programmed to allow Cortana to open and edit docs. Users can even share documents using voice commands and Cortana.
For the time being, though, the initial app will be a prototype. However, users can expect Cortana integration in Office apps on mobile as well as desktop soon, the report adds. In fact, in the future, Microsoft could even look to integrate Cortana on iOS and Android.
More solid details on the report, however, appeared earlier after WindowsblogItalia posted a few leaked screenshots of the Work Assistant for Windows Phone. As you might see from the screenshots, when you open the app, it illustrates the hub for all your Office documents.
The blog also adds that the app can accept voice commands like 'Open', 'Search', 'Share', 'Edit' and a few complex commands such as 'open the presentation yesterday' or 'email this file to this person'.
"Like Google and Apple products accept voice commands of 'OK Google' or 'Hey Siri', for Microsoft, the hot word is 'Office' as seen in the final screenshot of 'Help' topics," adds the report.
While we are yet to land up on more solid evidence on the matter, the new report only makes sense with Microsoft's new approach to its mobility division in mind. It wasn't long ago that the company released Office apps for other platforms like Android and iOS.
