Despite the significant lead that voice assistants from Google, Apple and Amazon have over Microsoft's offering, Cortana isn't giving up.

A Microsoft patent application published late last month details plans to better incorporate Cortana into third-party apps.

The tech giant said it wants "an extensibility client that exposes an interface and service that enables third-party applications to be integrated with the digital assistant." Though Cortana is available on several third-party apps, the new patent would make it easier for developers to add Cortana features, like voice recognition, text-to-speech and app-specific controls.

Essentially, this would let users control more than just Microsoft apps with Cortana, which could motivate people to use the assistant more. 

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