Microsoft hopes your Windows PC would replace the Amazon Echo

If rumors are true, Microsoft may be one of the few major consumer tech giants that don’t have a smart, voice-guided speaker in the works… but that doesn’t mean it’s sitting on its thumbs.

In an expansion of recent code discoveries, Windows Central sources claim that Windows 10 is getting a Home Hub feature that will turn supporting PCs into rivals for the Amazon Echo and Google Home.

Under Home Hub, Cortana would have access to both shared content as well as that of individual users who are signed in.

That would tackle one of the biggest issues with devices like Google Home — that they’re frequently limited to supporting a single user’s account. Supporting PCs would also be much more Cortana-friendly.

You could use voice commands from a greater distance, and wake up the PC with voice alone.

It’s reportedly scheduled to arrive through three significant Windows 10 updates (nicknamed Redstone 2, 3 and 4) that would start arriving in 2017.

And if you want a PC designed for the feature from the ground up, you may have to wait until the very end of the year.

Microsoft is said to be asking vendors (including HP and Lenovo) to step up with Home Hub-optimized all-in-one PCs in late 2017.