On the Windows Phone Blog Joe Belfiore has announced the first update for Windows Phone 8.1. Despite most Windows Phone 8 devices still waiting to get Windows Phone 8.1 update Microsoft have announced the first update for the phone OS.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update will be made available to developers running developer preview next week and the main change for UK users will be the addition of Cortana. It is coming to the UK and China in beta form and Canada, India and Australia labelled as an Alpha. The UK version of Cortana has been changed to support UK spellings and pronunciations, London Stock Exchange data, and the voice is UK based.

For the UK, Cortana has been tailored to support UK spellings and pronunciations and Bing-provided local data on sports teams (for the EPL), the London Stock Exchange, commuter conditions, and more. The voice and accent is, of course, local, and Cortana’s personality in the UK has also been tweaked to be more locally relevant.

Other changes in the update include support for Live Folders so you can drag live tiles over each other and it will create a folder where you can rearrange the folders however you want. Xbox Music will get an update with improved performance in areas like lists and scrolling.

The Xbox Music app has been updated to deliver much better performance in areas like app load and list scrolling. It’s also brought back features that were missing in the Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers. From background sync of your collection, to swipe to advance, the product has been continually adding features in every two weeks for the past few months. And in the coming month, there will be a “quickplay” of recent playback activities, and support for Kids Corner. Some of these features/improvements are already there in the latest Xbox Music app with the Windows Phone 8.1 release, but some (Live Tile in particular) are specific to the Windows Phone 8.1 Update. More to come!

The Windows Phone Store Live Tile has been tweaked so it will show upgrades and new apps on the tile.

When Can I Get Windows Phone 8.1 Update?

According the post if you are already running the Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview the update should be available next week and for non-developer phones it will be rolling out over the next few months.

If you’re already on the Windows Phone 8.1 Preview for Developers then this update should be rolling out next week. The Windows Phone 8.1 Update will roll out to consumers with devices running Windows Phone 8.1 in the coming months. As always, keep sending us your feedback here on UserVoice! Enjoy the update!

Checkout the post for the details.

One thought on “Windows Phone 8.1 Update coming next week along with Cortana into the UK”
  1. Does it mean that Cortana in the uk will be much less funny?? And still have a problem with coffee places like bing has? :/

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