Windows 10 users can now hook up Cortana with their Google account, giving the digital assistant access to the likes of Google Calendar events and your Gmail inbox.
In terms of operating systems, this functionality is available to Windows 10 users only right now, although it’s expected to arrive for Android and iOS in short order.
So how does this work exactly? If you’re running Windows 10, you can open Cortana, click on the Notebook icon (on the left panel), and add Gmail as a Connected Service (it’s listed as Gmail, but as mentioned this feature encompasses your whole Google account).
Once done, you can ask Cortana questions about what’s happening tomorrow on your Google Calendar, for example, and the assistant will let you know.
Early days
Thurrott.com spotted this development, and notes that you should be able to manage not only Calendar and Gmail, but Google Drive and Google Contacts via Cortana – although the exact commands for doing so aren’t clear yet. Some commands may not be working, and it seems like it’s still early days for the feature overall.
Indeed, Microsoft hasn’t officially announced this functionality yet, so hopefully it will be smoothed out a bit more soon enough.
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that as well as Windows 10 devices, this Google/Cortana hook-up also pertains to the Harmon Kardon Invoke, so you can set it up on this smart speaker should you wish.
This is another string to Cortana’s bow which will doubtless be welcomed by those many folks who use Google’s online services. Cortana was also recently found to be streets ahead of Siri in terms of successfully answering test queries, and also (arguably) ahead of Alexa – but behind Google Assistant.
Via: Neowin
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