Microsoft is not planning to roll out Windows 10 for the Xbox One until November, and Cortana is scheduled to arrive much later in 2016. However, a few enterprising gamers have seemed to discover a secret move to bring the personal digital assistant to the Xbox One as early as now.
A Reddit user has shared that opening the Settings panel on the Xbox One and going up then hitting the A button a few times immediately opens up Cortana, which will snap to the side of the screen beside any open game.
"For whatever reason, if you go to the settings tab on the guide, you can move up once. Hit the A button a few times and you will snap Cortana," says the Redditor who first discovered Cortana on his Xbox One. "Not sure why it's hidden there, but an interesting find!"
Not surprisingly, a throng of gamers tried what the original poster suggested, and lo and behold, they too were able to activate Cortana on their Xbox One.
YouTube channel Aussie Gamer has created a video demonstrating how Cortana is activated on the Xbox One.
The Verge's Tom Warren also confirmed Cortana's unofficial presence and shared a video over Twitter.
Cortana on Xbox One pic.twitter.com/ZtHinjHxEF
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) October 9, 2015
There are, of course, a few caveats. For one thing, it seems the Cortana that is now available for Microsoft's console is a toned down version of the smart digital assistant, and not all features that will be available with the official release are available right now. Also, Cortana only works with the New Xbox One Experience preview version, which means gamers will need to sign up for Microsoft's preview program if they want to use Cortana early.
There are, however, already quite a handful of working commands that Cortana seems to recognize, including "Hey Cortana," "Watch TV," "Volume up/down" and "Tell me a joke," among others. Gamers also say Cortana for the Xbox One now has access to things like their calendar, news, the weather and other information that Cortana can already access on other devices officially running the smart digital assistant.
No word has come from Microsoft about Cortana's release date for the Xbox One, but preview users will be able to receive the official Cortana preview toward the end of the year.
Photo: Cryostasis | Flickr
