Hackers ‘port’ Cortana to Android

A group of Italian hackers claims that they have ‘ported’ Microsoft’s speech assistant Cortana to Android. The implementation of the OrangeSec group is limited: far-reaching integration within Android is not available and Cortana can only handle Italian speech.

The hackers of the OrangeSec group presented their Android port of Cortana, called Portana, at the Droidcon 2015 conference, WinBeta writes. OrangeSec says it has succeeded in being able to access the back-end of the voice assistant via Android by using a hardware proxy.

The Portana implementation does have some limitations. For example, there is no extensive integration within Android, such as Google’s voice assistant, and Portana can only handle Italian. Also, the Cortana port cannot work offline.

Microsoft is expected to introduce Cortana more widely on desktops and tablets with the arrival of Windows 10. Android and iOS are also on the software giant’s agenda.