If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Cortana for Android, today could be your lucky day. A pre-release build of Microsoft’s digital assistant for Google’s mobile OS leaked out this weekend and has been illicitly made available for download. Unofficial Microsoft News says the leaked build is “functional” and that it has all the features you can expect from Cortana on Windows 10, so it would seem to be a pretty direct port of the software.
While Microsoft didn’t offer an exact launch date for when Cortana would become available for Android, it did announce a beta program so a limited number of users in the U.S. and China can test the software before it’s ready for public release. Cortana has now made its way online as an .APK file, which suggests that it’s a leak from the beta program.
The actual .APK file means that any Android user can install Cortana simply by turning off the security setting related to sideloading apps. The most likely scenario is that a beta tester in the U.S. or China uploaded the Cortana .APK so others could try it out even if they didn’t sign up for the beta program.
So, for those too impatient to wait for Cortana’s official launch, you can download the .apk file here, and upload it to your Android device.
Cortana is Microsoft’s answer to iOS’s Siri, and Window’s Google Now—a digital buddy, eager to help users with day-to-day activities by covering a wide variety of uses, such as finding the nearest gas station, access pictures and documents stored on the cloud, and scheduling important events. Users are also encouraged to input their personal preferences into the app’s “Notebook” (such as one’s favorite type of food, or how willing they’d be to travel to the nearest destination) to help Cortana narrow the range of choices to best suit your needs. Those already familiar with the Windows Phone version of Cortana will have no trouble navigating their way through the app, as the interface for the Android beta version is nearly identical.
Early testers report that the Android iteration of Cortana is pretty similar to what you’d find on the native Windows Phone version of Cortana. Since the digital assistant is designed to respond to your commands and perform activities on your behalf, don’t be surprised when it asks a not-so-insignificant number of permissions when you install the app onto your Android device.
The official beta version of Cortana for Android, meanwhile, should available publicly in the coming weeks. Interested users in the U.S. can take this survey for the chance to be among the first testers before the public beta release. Microsoft says it will be sending download links to select users via email.
If you decide to take this Cortana for Android a try, keep in mind the leaked version of Cortana is still a beta—and one that wasn’t necessarily intended for public consumption—so you may encounter bugs along the way. If you’d rather play it safe, stay tuned for our hands-on next week, and we’ll let you know how it worked for us.