Windows Phone 8.1 is here; gets the Action Centre and voice-assistant Cortana

Microsoft kicked off things at the Build conference this year with its much expect announcement of Windows Phone 8.1 that will bring things in order for the company and offer some much improved features to enhance the user experience and making it more useful to them.

The new Windows mobile platform now features the Action Centre, dual-SIM support, FM Radio, install app to SD card option and refreshed tiles interface that can accommodate your favourite images to form unified wallpaper. Action Centre is basically the notification centre that carries all message/call/mail and app alerts just by swiping down the screen from the top. Dual-SIM support on mobile devices has become paramount these days and with this announcement, one can foresee Nokia Lumia devices offering dual-SIM option. FM Radio may not sound like much of an upgrade but just having the option on the devices after a long wait is welcome.

Other than the mentioned features, you also get a new look Calendar interface that comprises of detailed listings. Then you have the refreshed Windows Store look and feel and consist of separate app tiles at the start and from there on you can pick your choices from over 240,000 apps.

But the most important of all features is the well documented Google Now and Siri competitor that comes in the form of Cortana. The said is Microsoft's voice-assistant feature that will power intuitive capability on the Windows Phone 8.1 devices. The feature is still in its beta phase which is why it will be available to users in US for now and moving to other markets in due course of time.

All these features will be available on all the existing Lumia range of devices from Nokia in the coming months and Nokia Lumia 630, 635 and 930 are the first Lumia devices to come out-of-box with Windows Phone 8.1, starting from next month onwards for the former while the latter will be launched at a later date. The Windows Phone 8.1 update will come in the form of Lumia Cyan update on the Lumia range.