A group of Italian hackers called OrangeSec have managed to port Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant over to Android as "Portaña," albeit with some limitations.
Cortana has stirred lots of interest worldwide due to its advanced features, and the software has been available for a while on various Windows Phone models. Microsoft's digital assistant will also play a big part in the upcoming Windows 10 operating system, which will bring Cortana to the desktop.
Cortana may be limited to Windows devices, but Portaña now brings the digital assistant to Android, at least to some extent. As previously mentioned, this project comes with some limitations, as it doesn't provide the full range of features the original Cortana has to offer. Instead, Portaña only works if users are online, and at least for now the only supported language is Italian.
The software will not work unless users are online because although it has been hacked to work on Android, it still relies on Microsoft's back-end servers. For this reason, users will not be able to enjoy Portaña to control or integrate with Android features just like the real Cortana integrates with Windows Phone. Nevertheless, Portaña is an interesting proof of concept that gives a glimpse into the potential Cortana would have on Android. OrangeSec reportedly used a combination of custom SSL certificates, hardware proxies, and DNS spoofing to get Portaña to work.
Microsoft, for its part, seems mostly unimpressed by this effort, indicating that you'd only get the real deal with the real Cortana.
"Cortana was first available for our Windows Phone customers in Spring of 2014, and we announced on January 21 that Cortana will come to PC and tablets later this year with the release of Windows 10," a company spokesperson told VentureBeat. "We believe the best way to enjoy the full Cortana experience is as designed by Microsoft and available through Windows Phone and the Windows 10 technical preview."
Various rumors so far have suggested that Microsoft is looking into bringing Cortana to other platforms such as Android and iOS, but the company has not confirmed nor commented on such rumors. In the meantime, Portaña is as close as it gets to an Android Cortana for now, so check out the video below to get a better idea of this proof of concept.
