Cortana for Android leaked last weekend, a little more than a week before its expected release date next Wednesday. We got our hands on it and took it for a spin for this week's Tap That App!

Caveat

This build of Cortana for Android should be basically treated as a beta preview. Some of the kinks and bugs are undoubtedly going to be worked out before and after its launch, so this review is more or less judging the rough draft of Microsoft's go-to AI assistant.

Getting Started

First, we had to find the right device running the right version of Android to get Cortana to interact with us at all. The app couldn't recognize voice commands with a Moto X 2014 running stock Android 5.1 and it wouldn't install at all on an LG G Pad 8.3 running custom Cyanogenmod Android 5.1 Lollipop.

Put it on an LG G Flex 2 with stock Android 5.0.2, and we're in business. (This won't be a problem on its official release; see the caveat above.)

The first thing you'll need once the official Cortana for Android is out is a Microsoft account. Yes, if you don't have one, it's yet another login/password to deal with, but that's the only way you'll be able to use it -- and the only way Microsoft can ensure it's the same "Cortana" you're interacting with no matter what platform you use in the future.

After that, Cortana immediately started up and gave some examples of voice commands and questions. It also found my location immediately, and started bringing up information cards -- places to check out, local news, etc. -- that might be helpful. It's kind of like Google Now's context cards, except more customizable (more on that in a minutes).

Overall, so far so good.

Great Personality 

I've shied away from using Siri because it felt more awkward than fun using her interactive voice features, but on Android, I'm a frequent user of the personality-deficient Google Now for voice commands and search.

Cortana seems to be going for a perfect mix and enhancement on both. She -- I use that pronoun with scare quotes implied to whatever level you're willing to accept a piece of software that is designed to give you the impression it's a woman (nevertheless, it's still a piece of software) -- is much more fun to talk to than Siri ever was. She even makes jabs at Siri, along with jokes and smart answers to probing questions.

And she has a great singing voice -- and a relatively large repertoire of copyright free songs (she's not afraid to ironically comment on that fact).

I'm not looking for a friend in an AI assistant, but there's a real point here: Making interaction fun makes interaction more likely and frequent, which makes the AI assistant smarter about what information you're likely to need or want at any given time.

Voice Recognition Is Iffy

That said, it seems the beta version of Cortana, at least, is not quite as good at catching every word in my voice input. Neither is my wife, and a lot of that is on me for speaking quickly, quietly, and running words together often.

But Google Now seems to pick up on more words, and even self-correct initial impressions into the right words, more reliably than this version of Cortana, half-baked though she may be.

That may change, especially soon as more people use Cortana and the software gets smarter. And I'm willing to chalk it up to a mix of this Cortana's unofficial status and my diction, especially given the fact that Microsoft has specifically been working to make (the "real") Cortana on Windows 10 understand English spoken with any number of accents.

The Notebook Is Key

That said, as far as a digital assistant goes, Cortana seems built with more trust in the user than Siri or Google Now, and it all comes down to her "Notebook" system.

Rather than a non-transparent process of gleaning contextual information to customize its preferences for you like with Siri, or basically the same thing with the addition of a couple of user-based tweaks in Google Now, Cortana's Notebook is practically a digital filing cabinet of preferences Cortana picks up on. But its one that you can not only look at, but manually go in and adjust, subject by subject.

It may seem overwhelming at first (as are the permissions Cortana requires, but, hey, it's an AI assistant), but the Notebook adds incredible value to Cortana over Google Now or Siri.

Here's why. Have you ever randomly searched for information on a TV show that you're not a fan of, perhaps because you were looking for scathing reviews or just trying to figure out the name of "that one actor" in it? I have, and later in the week, Google Now can't wait to tell me when the next episode of "The Big Bang Theory" is airing. I can dismiss that card, and I can ask for no more TV suggestions, but I'd rather just go into the AI's brain and erase that preference for good.

Cortana's Notebook may not allow for a developers' level of control, but it could be quite useful in those situations.

Cortana vs. Siri vs. Google Now 

We'll have to see how Cortana for iOS works once it comes out to make any comparison with Siri that go beyond the surface level, but there's a good case for using Cortana for Android instead of Google Now.

Of course, first there's the big, obvious case for ignoring Cortana and sticking with Google Now on Android: Google Now is just baked into the system, and if you're an Android person, you likely have Google Now enabled across many devices and pulling from an increasingly large database of apps, preferences, searches, locations, and all the other bits of information you're constantly giving Google.

Google Now likely to always work better than any other AI, Cortana included, for those hard-core to medium-core Android people.

Tap That App

But if you use a PC and are planning on upgrading to Windows 10, the case for primarily using Cortana on your Android devices is pretty strong.

Microsoft is baking Cortana into many facets of its operating system, especially the new "Edge" web browser, and thus this cross-platform Cortana is likely to build quite a lot of knowledge customized to you no matter what. In fact, your Android Cortana may get smarter than your Google Now, simply because of the amount of use you might get from her on your PC.

That's at least what Microsoft is probably hoping, but we'll have to wait until everything's officially out to see if its cross-platform bet pays off. Unfortunately, we can't recommend tapping this particular app, since it has to be sideloaded on Android without the protections or ease of Google Play.

But once it's officially out -- probably this upcoming week -- Cortana for Android is definitely worth a look.