Microsoft is previewing its major anniversary software update for Xbox One. The  first patch for the upcoming update is releasing for people who’ve opted in for Xbox Early Access. The list of new features is quite extensive, but Cortana for Xbox One is the headliner. You’ll have to be an Early Access member to view the patch notes in the private thread here.

Xbox One’s current Kinect voice controls are functional, but rudimentary at best. Cortana will bring Siri-like natural language functionality, a big plus if you use voice controls regularly on the Xbox One. Cortana will work via a headset even if you don’t have Kinect, which is great if you purchased your Xbox One after Microsoft decoupled Kinect from the bundle.

Apart from Cortana, My Games, the Activity Feed, and the Store have also received overhauls. My Games receives several sorting and filtering options and lets you view detailed information about games while they’re being downloaded. The Activity Feed is now user customisable–you can pick what content you see there, and the Store’s received a major design overhaul,

Today, Microsoft announced that the upcoming Summer updates will finally be bringing Cortana, their extremely popular voice enabled digital assistance from Windows 10 and Windows Phone, will be coming to Xbox One as well. It’s a good bit of news- and it will allow Xbox One players to finally realize the promise made to Xbox gamers all those years ago of interacting with their Xboxes with their voices.

The best part? You won’t need an extremely expensive Kinect to do it. No, Kinect on Xbox One will not be the only way to engage with Cortana- you can do it via your headset too. This is important, because until now, Microsoft have reserved voice commands for Xbox One exclusively for Kinect users.

I imagine Cortana being hosted in the Cloud may be the reason here- the Xbox One itself doesn’t actually have to do any language processing. It has long been speculated that voice commands on Xbox One have been reserved for Kinect because the Kinect’s co-processor allows for full language processing. Cortana being hosted online, I imagine, would sidestep that requirement entirely.

Rumours have been running that Microsoft will be be launching a voice search assistant similar to Apple’s Siri, and that it will be based off of Halo’s AI Cortana with the same voice and mannerisms. Now, a recent report by Bloomberg citing an anonymous source says that Microsoft has invested $15 million in FourSquare to develop the app.

Though CEO Dennis Crowley confirmed an investment, it hasn’t been revealed exactly how much and for what purpose it serves. As of now, Cortana is rumoured to be a voice-assistant that will conduct searches similar to Microsoft’s “TellMe” service and will be arriving on Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Not much is known beyond that.

Given the popularity of Cortana, it remains to be seen as to how Microsoft leverages this for success. Though the company has turned to Halo for bumping up sales of smartphones and tablets with Spartan Assault, Windows Phone devices are still in a distant third compared to Android and iOS. Stay tuned for more updates.