Are you satisfied with Microsoft's digital voice assistant- POLL

[markdb]

I like the WP8.1 upgrade a lot. I bought a Lumia 520 just to try it out. One of the most attractive features of the WP 7-8.1 is the live tiles and the text reading and voice to text response. Contana is a little more verbose in prompt/response, but works fine. On the whole, Cortana is not as useful as SIRI, so far. Remind me's don't post to my Exchange Tasks, I don't use OneNote. Curious the Microsoft would trend us away from Exchange.

 

[MetalFan777]

I can?t use it now. I live in Norway and to change location-settings and Language is not an option for me. I have tried it and she has really problems with my broken English. Both my parents has WP too. And this would be great for them if it was in Norwegian. But to them to talk or write in English is useless. This is starting to be a deal breaker for me. Not that it is now. But the feeling of being second class citizen in this is not a good feeling. I still love Microsoft and WP. Even windows 8.1. But if there isn?t coming in Norwegian I may go over to android someday. You know. Whats the point of having a phone with less future as it could have. Just because your not a golden boy from US.

 

[thelorenzzo]

When I first read about Cortana I thought I was only going to use it for fun. However, I find myself asking her to do stuff for me every day. I can't even go back to 8.0 now, as she's making my life so much easier. By the way, I'm not a native English speaker and I don't live in an English-speaking country. so that should give you an idea of how useful it is. I just wish Microsoft would make her work offline in type=mode (so no voice recognition would be needed) with some of the basic stuff, like reminders and alarms. I'd love to be on the subway, no 3G on, typing "Remind me to call my mom when I get home". This shouldn't be hard to add in a future update, right? Again, I'm just saying *basic stuff*, not chit-chat and other more complicated things.

 

[despertador]

Maybe it's the placebo effect, but I think the voice dictation/recognition has improved greatly!


Unfortunately, Cortana itself isn't very good at understanding some of my phrases. I hope that'll be improved later...


I also like how Cortana detects potential events in emails and how I can add them to my calendar with a tap!

 

[Android killer]

Yes but we wand her to learn her Greek so we can speak to her we Greeks too!!

 

[mayconvert]

I think they did a great job for a beta assistant. There is room for improvement, but she is awesome already.
I see a lot of people say they never use Cortana, Siri, Google now etc. I don't get it. These voice assists are awesome. I use them all the time. Even in public.
I don't care what the "public" thinks. If i need to be reminded to do something, or get cat food when I go to Petsmart etc. I talk to my phone.
I feel like people who don't use these assistants, ever, are missing out. Their loss.

 

[Calarin]

- Love it so far, but it comes up with plain bing searches more often than I would like. I wish she would read back the first few results or something, or clarify before jumping to bing. Aside from the basic appointments, directions, etc, I don't see a huge use for it yet.

- Voice recognition is great, just a few mistakes so far... one was REALLY off. I think I asked What do you think of Halo 5? or something like that, but in a slightly muffled voice, so it decided to do a bing search for What do you think of anal r**e? I was absolutely shocked, but it was still pretty funny - like isn't there something else that matches closer? lol

- Needs more app integrations, like Spotify!!!

 

[Guytronic]

Wishlist item:

I'd like Cortana to change my camera settings by voice.
Also I wish she could judge weather the shot with settings will result in the best output.

 

[anon(8150199)]

How can I change the temperature to Celsius permanently? And what can I do to make Cortana remember a place when I'm already there? (Bing Maps doesn't work here)

 

[ShaneRay]

While I'll reserve judgement for a while, I don't think Cortana is something I'll be making use of. I'll admit that the coolness factor it there right now. But, longer term utility? Dunno about that. I still think voice interaction (on ANY system) still has a long way to go before it's truly natural and convenient.

 

[Guytronic]

At first I thought "gimmick" then somehow Cortana has snuck into my digital needs.
I thought being retired there would be little use for this.
Not true!
Voicing reminders is helping me with staying on track for the simplest tasks.

Cortana may just end up helping many folks aging or not stay focused.
Another great reason to pocket a smart phone for people who insist on holding out.
Talking trumps typing...

 

[hack14u]

1520 with 8.1 Preview, thought it would be more like Google Now, but not really even a contender. As time progresses though, I do think it will come of age. It's way too early to make a final analysis.

 

[mrdvos]

Cortana voice capabilities are very inferior towards Speaktoit Assistant.

 

[Richard Culverhouse]

They need the true British stuff...
She should reply with "old chap" and greet me with "what ho old boy!" lol

 

[hemanlive]

So far, I have had very basic interaction with any of the voice assistants on smartphones. The reason for this is that more than 90% of the time they were unable to decipher what I said :eck:. Even with simple tasks like "call Amit" they would get confused, call someone else, ask me to repeat or do just any other unrelated activity. So even with all the positive comments about Cortana, I would like to reserve my apprehensions till the time I actually interact with her.
If what people are saying in the comments is indeed true, I would love to have an assistant like her. Particularly while driving if she can accept or reject calls, transfer those calls to my Bluetooth headset, read the messages only via Bluetooth and not on speaker :wink, send voice messages as I dictate them to her, open navigation apps and play (go to previous or next track) etc. I would love it. Given my experience this seems like an unrealistic wish list. Since the actual users are writing that she is capable of doing all this and more, I would love to have her ASAP. I am waiting for her to arrive in India.:excited:

 

[artzznyzz]

Cortana Bugs / Missing Features

My two main problems with Cortana are:

- Too intrusive - Pops up frequently with distracting junk screens which must be cleared before going on,
and
- Big power eater. (Especially unacceptable if any map app is in use while driving, when the net power use even without Cortana grossly exceeds input from the charger ===> As much as Net 20-30% discharge per hour.)

(BTW NL 920 with DP 8.1 & Upgrade, reinstalled after factory resets, etc, etc.)

Therefore, Cortana is always off during the day, but always on at night to filter calls with Quiet Hours to limit to family, etc.

Microsoft should cure the continuing battery problem (and Cortana as part of the problem), as discussed elsewhere.

 

[roni09riku]

For a Beta program, Cortana is amazing. Hopefully she'll get better once she's complete.

 

[jagudi]

it?s nice but for now i only uset it for quiet hours
I prefer Sam from speaktoit. she understand me and I can have a basic conversation

 

[InfiniteRefrain]

I love Cortana; BUT I am tired of the constant connection issues when starting a search. She will go as far as populate search suggestions, but when initiating the actual search I get an error and zero search results. Hopefully, this will be fixed by release, but it's frustrating and have to use ........ (shudder) Google

 

[rpac78]

Although I like Cortana's implementation better than Siri (haven't tried Google Now), I voted room for improvement just cause she's in beta. Understanding that she's in beta, it's still puts me off a bit when the voice changes from the more fluid conversational speech from Jen Taylor to the robotic voice. Once more recordings are done, I'm sure the banter will be great.

I have been using Cortana more to set reminders and appointments, more than I used ever used Siri.