Microsoft's Cortana voice assistant is still trying to catch up to its rivals in many areas, but soon productivity may not be one of them. A new feature that lets you ask Cortana for new emails is now live for those using Cortana with U.S. English on Windows 10 or who use the Harmon Kardon Invoke speaker (see our review ). Unfortunately, the feature does not yet work for iOS or Android, as far as we can tell.

The feature is simple enough. You just ask Cortana if you have any new emails. The assistant checks for and reads you a list of any unread messages, including who it is from and the subject.

You can then respond, and Cortana will take a "short note." And Cortana then sends the email on your behalf.

Cortana can get even more precise than that, however. Users can ask if there is any new email from a specific user or if there are unread emails since yesterday.

Microsoft has been putting Cortana in more places lately, including its Launcher on Android, and soon in iOS through Outlook. This trend is likely to continue over the coming year with more hardware and more software integrations for the fledgling A.I.

Here's hoping for support in more countries too.

See the Invoke Cortana speaker at Microsoft