It's official! Microsoft's Cortana is coming to both iOS and Android

Today, Microsoft announced that its home-baked voice assistant, Cortana, will cease to be Windows-exclusive and is headed to both iOS and Android. Redmond's Joe Belfiore revealed this in a newly-posted video promo. Cortana is referred to as a "phone companion app" and will aim at both Apple's Siri and Google's Google Now, which are integral parts of iOS and Android, respectively.

It seems that Cortana will bring mostly the same functionality to iOS and Android that it currently offers to Windows Phone users. Of course, it will be a bit limited due to the fact that it will be a standalone app and not baked into the respective operating system.

Just as you might expect, it will allow you to make queries - you can ask it for whatever you like. Among the other mentioned features that iUsers and Android fans will benefit from are location-based reminders that go off at a given time of the day. What's more, if your phone is in your pocket and a reminder needs to go off, Cortana will wake it up and notify you about the task at hand. It will also make interaction with Microsoft's own apps (OneNote, OneDrive, others) across these platforms easier.