Cortana Now Lets You Respond to Texts Messages From Your Windows 10 PC

Microsoft has rolled out new features to Cortana on Windows 10. With the latest update, the voice-based virtual assistant lets you know when you have missed a call. The app, in addition, also allows you text to people right from your computer. Separately, the company has announced that it will be relaunching its payments app, Windows Wallet, possibly featuring the Windows 10 biometric security system.

The Redmond-giant introduced Cortana to the desktop platform with Windows 10. The company at the time of launch had also stated that Cortana on the desktop will work in conjunction with mobile devices. While we saw third-party tools embracing Cortana's availability on desktop, Microsoft hadn't done much on this front. The company is changing that.

An update to Cortana will allow you to send text messages from your system. Thanks to Cortana's support for voice input, you will also be able to dictate a message to Cortana on your system and it will send out the message. The text message will, as you would expect, will be sent from your phone itself. In addition, Cortana will also let you know if you missed a call on. You will need to have a Windows Phone app to use this feature, and signed in with Microsoft account at both the places. The feature doesn't support Cortana for Android just yet.

Separately, the company had some information about its upcoming payments feature to offer as well. In an interview with The Verge and Recode, Microsoft's Joe Belfiore said that the company plans to relaunch the Windows Wallet app. "Windows is going to have a wallet concept. You've seen it on phones before. We're going to continue to iterate it," Belfiore told the publications, referring to the Windows Wallet app for Windows Phone. "We're going to think about the range of payment scenarios."

Belfiore noted that the app could support Windows 10 biometric authentication system Windows Hello as this is the "kind of technology we'll build into devices for authentication to make... payments better." He didn't have a release timeframe to offer, but the sooner the company improves it the better it is for it as the market for the mobile payments is getting crowded every day.