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Cortana vs Google Assistant
March 19, 2025 | Author: Adam Levine
7★
Cortana is your personal assistant on your Windows computer. She's there to help make things easier for you and keep you up to date on the things that matter to you. Whether it’s to keep you looped in with your world or help you manage your everyday life, Cortana is there for you.
9★
Virtual assistant integrated in conversational user interface products: Google Allo and Google Home. You can ask a question for an answer, and follow up with multiple questions, with Google picking the conversation out and returning the right answer.
Cortana and Google Assistant, like a pair of slightly overzealous but incredibly helpful extraterrestrials, both offer the same basic premise: they are voice-activated entities designed to make your life easier or at least attempt to do so. They both have a peculiar habit of answering your questions, setting reminders and playing music on command, as though they’ve been briefed on human preferences. They can also help manage smart home gadgets, presumably because they’ve decided that your home should function in a manner far more organized than you do. The one thing they do quite well is interpret your words—well, mostly—no matter how much you insist on making life difficult with your accent or terrible Wi-Fi connection.
Now, Cortana, a creation of Microsoft in 2014, seems to have been designed with an air of supreme productivity—more suited to the office than the living room. It lives inside Windows 10, behaving like a dutiful assistant who would prefer you spent your time typing out spreadsheets rather than asking about the weather. Originally, it was meant to be your digital sidekick, helping with the likes of emails and calendar management, but over time, it’s started to retreat, like an old soldier too tired to fight on the front lines, now focusing only on businesses that need reminders for their PowerPoint presentations.
On the other hand, Google Assistant, launched in 2016, is a less officious, more friendly guide to life’s simpler pleasures, often with a slightly more cheerful tone. Built into Android devices and Google’s smart speakers, it is a master of answering the "Where’s the nearest pizza place?" queries and guiding you through the intricacies of Google Maps like a jovial tour guide who somehow knows all the shortcuts. Its wide availability, multilingual capabilities and familiarity with your personal preferences (thanks to Google’s relentless data collection) make it the go-to assistant for nearly everything outside the office. It’s certainly better equipped to help you plan your weekend or at least tell you when your favorite show starts.
See also: Top 10 AI Assistants
Now, Cortana, a creation of Microsoft in 2014, seems to have been designed with an air of supreme productivity—more suited to the office than the living room. It lives inside Windows 10, behaving like a dutiful assistant who would prefer you spent your time typing out spreadsheets rather than asking about the weather. Originally, it was meant to be your digital sidekick, helping with the likes of emails and calendar management, but over time, it’s started to retreat, like an old soldier too tired to fight on the front lines, now focusing only on businesses that need reminders for their PowerPoint presentations.
On the other hand, Google Assistant, launched in 2016, is a less officious, more friendly guide to life’s simpler pleasures, often with a slightly more cheerful tone. Built into Android devices and Google’s smart speakers, it is a master of answering the "Where’s the nearest pizza place?" queries and guiding you through the intricacies of Google Maps like a jovial tour guide who somehow knows all the shortcuts. Its wide availability, multilingual capabilities and familiarity with your personal preferences (thanks to Google’s relentless data collection) make it the go-to assistant for nearly everything outside the office. It’s certainly better equipped to help you plan your weekend or at least tell you when your favorite show starts.
See also: Top 10 AI Assistants
