Shouting out commands at your laptop is a lot of fun but there are occasions when typed input works better – and apparently Cortana’s engineers have taken note. You can already type queries into Cortana on Windows 10 but the digital assistant is soon going to work more like an instant messenger app, according to insiders.

In other words, the experience would be more like it is with Google Assistant on mobile, where you have a back-and-forth text chat with the AI. Voice input for Cortana isn’t going away, but it sounds like text input is incoming.

That’s all according to “sources familiar with the matter” speaking to Windows Central, so don’t take it as 100 percent certain just yet. We don’t have any timeframe on when this new feature might arrive, but it makes sense for Microsoft to expand the number of ways you can interact with Cortana.

On the move

The report on Windows Central is backed up by an article on Thurrott which adds a little extra info: apparently Microsoft is also thinking about shifting Cortana on Windows 10 from near the Start menu to the system tray on the right. Apparently that was the plan way back when Windows 10 was first being designed.

Again there’s no indication of when we might see this roll out or even if Microsoft will definitely decide to go ahead with the location change. At this stage the conversation UI looks more likely to get the official stamp of approval.

Microsoft continues to tweak and refine Cortana in its regular Windows 10 updates: recent beta versions of the operating system have given Cortana the ability to scan photos and images to create reminders, so snapping a shot of a movie poster would create a reminder for that film.

Via The Verge