Microsoft Cortana is setting out to rescue grocery shoppers, busy professionals, and pretty much everyone else who relies on to-do lists but hates to make them. Starting today, Cortana can automatically start a grocery, to-do, or shopping list to which you add items using your voice.
Phrases like "Hey Cortana, create a holiday list," will trigger the new option, which is available on the Cortana Android and iOS apps, as well as Windows 10.
If you'd like access to the lists Cortana creates without asking her to read them back to you, you can read them via an integration with Wunderlist. Connecting to Wunderlist also gives you the ability to add due dates to your to-dos and create shared lists from the Wunderlist app.
Cortana Gives Third-Party Apps a Voice
One of Cortana's chief rivals, Apple's Siri, can also create and update to-do lists. Siri keeps track of your lists via the Reminders app for iOS and macOS.
Microsoft has been positioning Cortana as a worthy alternative to Siri and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. One of the keys in that strategy is welcoming third-party developers: at its Build developers conference in April 2016, Microsoft announced a new 'Actions' platform that makes it easier for developers to add items from their apps to Cortana.