Cortana UK is in a bad place

[Jcmg62]

I've been using Cortana here in the UK since day one and was happy to see some really great advances when using the service on my Lumia 1520 running windows 8.1. It was fast, responsive, accurate and fun to use. The "hey Cortana" feature was a fantastic step forward.

However, I've since upgraded to a Lumia 950 Windows 10 phone (running very latest firmware and insider fast ring OS) and have been really disappointed.

First up, the "hey Cortana" is just flat out unresponsive. I've tried setting it to respond to anyone or just me and have been through the learn voice process loads of times. I have to say "hey Cortana" at least 4-5 times to get the phone to wake up.

Secondly, the chat feature and way in which information comes back to you is just miles short of rival google. It works fine for basic reminder settings but will almost 100% of the time default to a bing search when asked a question.

Last up, it gets just plain embarrassing when you find yourself in a real world situation. Here was mine; my wife was doing some cooking yesterday. She has an HTC M8 running Android. She wanted to know how many grams of sugar to use in flapjacks. So she hits up "ok google" and asks the question. Google comes back with a full verbal breakdown, gives her the answer...THEN tells her the calorific difference between white and brown sugar and asks her if she wants a recipe for flapjacks. How awesome is that??!

So there I stand with my Lumia 950. Not to be outdone I try the same thing. My issues start early. First off I have to say "hey Cortana" 6 times, in an ever louder voice, to get it to respond. Finally, the little circle appears and I ask the same question. What I get back is a very basic bing search for flapjack recipes.

Not nearly as impressive as ok google. In fact, not even 10% as impressive.

So I get that we're in beta mode here and have been since day one back in 2014, but seriously the move to W10M seems to have meant a big step back in Cortana intelligence. The reality is that the UK version of Cortana today is no more intelligent and capable than it was 12-18 months ago, and that's a big disappointment.

Cortana was supposed to be this big step up for Windows. It was touted as an incredible creation that was going to leave the competition scrambling for answers. The fact is that google has it licked and kicked all the way.

 

[lostlogik]

I've given up with Hey Cortana on my 950XL for the moment and even using Cortana for web searches, as after I type in my query it just crashes back to the Home screen. Instead I do my searches in Edge.

Cortana is pretty useless with my Band 2 as well.

So, all in all, not impressed but keep hoping it'll get better.

 

[Jcmg62]

I've given up with Hey Cortana on my 950XL for the moment and even using Cortana for web searches, as after I type in my query it just crashes back to the Home screen. Instead I do my searches in Edge.

Cortana is pretty useless with my Band 2 as well.

So, all in all, not impressed but keep hoping it'll get better.

I agree. I was expecting the Band 2 to do more with Cortana in Windows 10 Mobile but the reality is that one year on and the band is a much improved re-design, but the interface with Cortana is exactly as it was with Band 1 / Windows Phone 8.1. It hasn't grown or matured one bit in that time.

And that pretty much summarises the UK Cortana experience....we're close to 18 months into having Cortana available in the UK and in that time the service hasn't improved in any noticeable way.

It's all well and good watching Bryan Roper on stage at CES crunching washing machine usage data using Cortana, but when the chips are down and google is kicking your *** when it comes to basic recipe queries then which end user is going to have the most memorable experience...

 

[Bobvfr]

I haven't tried Google's offering, but to be honest Cortana is still very much a toy, it does manage to have us in stitches in some of it's attempts at translating what I say and I don't speak that bad, honest guv.

I tried that Cortana Triggers as well, all it does is spend all day sending messages to either my 1520 or my desktop saying I am synchronised or the stuff still needs training (10 times a day).

Still a work in progress on both Triggers and very much on basic Cortana.

 

[lostlogik]

I
I tried that Cortana Triggers as well, all it does is spend all day sending messages to either my 1520 or my desktop saying I am synchronised or the stuff still needs training (10 times a day).

Still a work in progress on both Triggers and very much on basic Cortana.

Actually, Triggers I am quite impressed with, though to be fair, I only have two triggers set up at the moment, both relating to my heating. The few times I've used them, they have worked and it did give me a kick showing off, turning on my central heating from a friend's after a few days away.

 

[Manmikey]

I have to agree with the op and the replies in this thread, Cortana does nothing of use for me in the uk, she has a prized tile on my start screen but rarely shows anything on her tile other than the circle, she never gives me scores, results or info about my football team , calendar events, flights etc. If I ask anything she will usually respond with a list of websites to click on rather than talk to me. All this stuff is set up in the notebook.

Overall as the op states she is useless in the UK, to be honest I no longer use it and had forgotten about it as a feature till this post.

 

[Mad Cabbie]

I've been kicking off about this for a long time now. The live tile isn't erm....live. No updates on it. Interests are not available on .71 TP, won't track flights / parcels, won't give score updates, sports headlines are a crap shoot and basically it's gone from a beta in 8.1 to a complete basket case. I changed my region and speech to US and I got sport updates, which is great if rounders, netball and rugby for tarts is your thing. I was half expecting adverts every time the tile flipped!!! Not happy, not impressed, not good. By the way L930.

 

[northernpipeman]

I posted something about cortana being utter crap on W10M compared to a decent service on WP8.1. Considering that MS are still adding features to the ios and android versions it is appalling the lack of interest in their new mobile platform.

 

[Mad Cabbie]

I posted something about cortana being utter crap on W10M compared to a decent service on WP8.1. Considering that MS are still adding features to the ios and android versions it is appalling the lack of interest in their new mobile platform.

Still can't believe we've gone from an amazing beta to an, at best, alpha. I rolled to 8.1 earlier. Put in a flight to watch. Voila, live tile has plane on it with flight info, terminal and delay etc... Happy days.

Actually, I say alpha, but I mean double negative alpha. It's a joke. Halo 'throbs' with a fresh install, but....the minute you select an interest game over. I wonder if they are tinkering as I have just noticed my space bar shows<ENG (GB)>. Don't remember seeing that before..... Off to investigate

 

[Jcmg62]

Still can't believe we've gone from an amazing beta to an, at best, alpha. I rolled to 8.1 earlier. Put in a flight to watch. Voila, live tile has plane on it with flight info, terminal and delay etc... Happy days.

Actually, I say alpha, but I mean double negative alpha. It's a joke. Halo 'throbs' with a fresh install, but....the minute you select an interest game over. I wonder if they are tinkering as I have just noticed my space bar shows<ENG (GB)>. Don't remember seeing that before..... Off to investigate

I just wish they'd put some urgency into getting it to a place where it's a useable service again. The problem Microsoft has always suffered from is delayed reaction......they do eventually bring good hardware / software to the market, but by then the ship has sailed and there's no space left for them. Fact is that Google Now and Siri are improving at a faster pace than Cortana. Sure, maybe by 2018 Cortana will be this awesome thing, but by then will anyone care...

 

[aliwal shoal]

Cortana has cost me hours of my time. Each time I think I've solved the problem because it works for a couple of hours, then explicably it just breaks again - and it doesn't just break itself, it freezes my computer. When it does work, it only in reality offers about a 3rd of the advertised features. So far I am being forced to reboot about 3 or 4 times a day - even though I'm aware that rebooting doesn't solve the issue. Does Cortana "dial home" to Microsoft? Is there an MS service somewhere that it can't reach from time to time? Because it feels like that is happening, given that it works fine for hours, then, when it stops, it is equally broken for hours until is simply seems to reset itself.

It's really, completely, rubbish. Most people want their PCs to work as advertised and hate giving up on a problem, so it costs us hours of our time just trying to stablise things when it doesn't seem possible regarding Cortana.

I've currently got the situation where Cortana no longer reponds verbally, everything is typed out and searches go to Bing. Pressing on the microphone more often than not freezes Cortana, and I cant maximise any apps that are minimised on my task bar. I've searched the internet, and people have been complaining about this issue for over a year now, which is depressing.

 

[theefman]

I've been using Cortana here in the UK since day one and was happy to see some really great advances when using the service on my Lumia 1520 running windows 8.1. It was fast, responsive, accurate and fun to use. The "hey Cortana" feature was a fantastic step forward.

However, I've since upgraded to a Lumia 950 Windows 10 phone (running very latest firmware and insider fast ring OS) and have been really disappointed.

First up, the "hey Cortana" is just flat out unresponsive. I've tried setting it to respond to anyone or just me and have been through the learn voice process loads of times. I have to say "hey Cortana" at least 4-5 times to get the phone to wake up.

Secondly, the chat feature and way in which information comes back to you is just miles short of rival google. It works fine for basic reminder settings but will almost 100% of the time default to a bing search when asked a question.

Last up, it gets just plain embarrassing when you find yourself in a real world situation. Here was mine; my wife was doing some cooking yesterday. She has an HTC M8 running Android. She wanted to know how many grams of sugar to use in flapjacks. So she hits up "ok google" and asks the question. Google comes back with a full verbal breakdown, gives her the answer...THEN tells her the calorific difference between white and brown sugar and asks her if she wants a recipe for flapjacks. How awesome is that??!

So there I stand with my Lumia 950. Not to be outdone I try the same thing. My issues start early. First off I have to say "hey Cortana" 6 times, in an ever louder voice, to get it to respond. Finally, the little circle appears and I ask the same question. What I get back is a very basic bing search for flapjack recipes.

Not nearly as impressive as ok google. In fact, not even 10% as impressive.

So I get that we're in beta mode here and have been since day one back in 2014, but seriously the move to W10M seems to have meant a big step back in Cortana intelligence. The reality is that the UK version of Cortana today is no more intelligent and capable than it was 12-18 months ago, and that's a big disappointment.

Cortana was supposed to be this big step up for Windows. It was touted as an incredible creation that was going to leave the competition scrambling for answers. The fact is that google has it licked and kicked all the way.

Should get your wife to try cortana on android and see if its as crap as the W10 version, that'll be interesting.

 

[Jcmg62]

Should get your wife to try cortana on android and see if its as crap as the W10 version, that'll be interesting.

I tried....she wasn't in the slightest bit interested in downloading Cortana on her device