Cyanogen is reportedly working on deeper integration of Microsoft's virtual assistant Cortana in its widely popular Cyanogen OS. It will help Cortana to perform more tasks efficiently as compared to the current Android app. In an interview with International Business Times, Kirt McMaster, CEO, Cyanogen Inc. said that the company is working closely with Microsoft to bring Cortana with the next version of CyanogenMod.
McMaster told IBT, “Natural language coupled with intelligence is very important, but as an application it doesn’t really work because you need to be embedded into the framework of the OS because that is where you get all the signal from the services that makes that intelligence smarter.” He further said that the Cortana is “much better than Apple’s Siri” and better than Google Now in certain areas.
The move, if it materialises, will surely help both Cyanogen as well as Microsoft. As mentioned above, Cortana has an app for Android, but it is not as efficient as Google Now, because of the lack of integration with the Android OS. On Windows 10 devices though, it is known what Cortana is a capable assistant when given the right permissions. According to Cyanogen, its OS has more users than the Windows Phone and BlackBerry combined, which means that integrating Cortana into it would give the voice assistant more exposure. Cyanogen has over 50 million users globally, including users who have rooted their devices and flashed the ROM and those that have received it pre-installed on their smartphones like Yu Yureka, Yu Yuphoria, etc. As per a Q2 2015 report by IDC, the worldwide share of Windows Phone and BlackBerry is 2.6% and 0.3% respectively.
Earlier this year, Cyanogen announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft. As part of the partnership, Cyanogen will distribute various Microsoft services and apps like Bing, Skype, Outlook, OneNote, OneDrive, and Microsoft Office. Cyanogen though clarified later that it is not bundling or pre-instaling Microsoft apps into CyanogenMod.