When Microsoft showed off its personal digital assistant called Cortana it did confirm that the assistant would be expanded in markets other than the U.S. very soon. Two of the first markets to receive Cortana are UK and China. Keeping in mind the nuances of different countries Microsoft made a slight change in Cortana’s user interface for China. Instead of a blue orb the Chinese iteration is a yellow shape that has eyes. A video has now appeared online which shows off Cortana for China in action.
The reason why Microsoft went with this user interface change is because eye contact happens to be very important in Chinese culture so it specifically made this change for the People’s Republic. A feature also exclusive to the Chinese version is a built-in notebook that can track air quality reports and subsequent driving restrictions.
Cortana interacts with users in Mandarin through text, speech and voice. Those who want to work on their English can make use of the integration with Bing Translator.
Unfortunately the video isn’t full HD but still it shows off Cortana doing its thing in China well enough. We also get to see the new start screen folders live in action. Microsoft is certainly working hard to personalize Cortana for all of these different countries and its definitely going to be one time consuming feat.
Filed in . Read more about Cortana, Microsoft and Windows Phone 8.1.