Microsoft is looking to integrate its digital assistant, Cortana, with its popular email client: Outlook. The company is currently testing this integration internally and will release it to the beta and public testing channel depending on the feedback it receives.

Cortana integration will allow Outlook iOS users to listen to and reply to their emails using their voice. This feature should come in handy while one is driving, though I don’t see anyone ever using this feature for anything but emails that require their urgent attention. Thanks to Bluetooth integration, Cortana will read out the emails over your car’s music system. Additionally, Outlook users will also be able to ask Cortana to read their unread emails or any new emails from a specific contact.

Cortana already reminds one of the events that they promise in emails using its suggested reminder feature.

Google, Apple, and even Amazon have been making inroads with their respective digital assistants. All the three companies have been working to improve their digital assistant using the help of AI and machine learning. Microsoft, on the other hand, has done very little with Cortana, and at this point, it is fair to say that its digital assistant is extremely far behind in the game and has little to no advantage over its competition. Thus, despite Outlook for iOS being an excellent email client, I doubt many people are going to get excited about Cortana integration coming to it.

[Via The Verge