My Invoke experience so far

Scienceguy Labs

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In the Cortana app, under the setting tab, you can enable the sound.
Thanks. For some reason, when I went into the Devices option, I kept getting a warning saying that no devices we're found. Magically, it's listing my Invoke now, and the option to turn on the Cortana sounds was there. 👍
 

anthonyng

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IheartRadio is far more impressive than I imagined. I threw some requests at it that were relatively obscure, it played them. It also did an excellent job of pairing similar artists, I was impressed.

Wait there's an iheartradio app?? Man I want it on my phone!

Bought m my invoke for 99$, can't wait to try it in Canada lol, gotta wait til Xmas however
 

Kevin Rush

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My wife and I bought two, one for each of us. The sound quality is truly amazing.
Update:
- IHeart radio works great. "Hey Cortona, Play Classic Rock".
- Linking my Office 365 Pro calendar was easy and when asked about items on my calendar tomorrow, Cortona reminded me of a meeting I had forgotten.
- Incidentally, each of our Invokes came with a different power cord/power plug. One had a shorter cord and a larger transformer/power plug. Both work fine, just thought I would mention it.

Best Wishes
 
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unmorphed

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Calendar works for me. Sorry, maybe it's your calendar connection/setup instead of Cortana.

I have my Smartthings hub hooked up and use the Invoke for smart home commands, works great.
 

Scienceguy Labs

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Is anybody else experiencing regular false Cortana wakeups? Every 45 minutes to an hour or so, Cortana's notification tone sounds off as if I've said "Hey, Cortana.". She seems to be very sensitive to sounds that are remotely similar to those key words or something is wrong.
Just checked the Cortana app to see if anything is being recorded, but nothing is.
 

Kevin Rush

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Two Invoke at the same time? Just curious, if one of you says "Hey Cortana", what is going to happen?

We keep them separated in different areas, one upstairs and one downstairs. They both respond to anyone's voice so I'm sure both would respond if there were two of the Invokes close enough to hear "Hey Cortona".
 

Kevin Rush

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Is anybody else experiencing regular false Cortana wakeups? Every 45 minutes to an hour or so, Cortana's notification tone sounds off as if I've said "Hey, Cortana.". She seems to be very sensitive to sounds that are remotely similar to those key words or something is wrong.
Just checked the Cortana app to see if anything is being recorded, but nothing is.

We don't have the notification tone turned on, but I do have a vague memory of seeing the lights, on the top of the Invoke, blink on for a few seconds.
 

mtf1380

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Is anybody else experiencing regular false Cortana wakeups? Every 45 minutes to an hour or so, Cortana's notification tone sounds off as if I've said "Hey, Cortana.". She seems to be very sensitive to sounds that are remotely similar to those key words or something is wrong.
Just checked the Cortana app to see if anything is being recorded, but nothing is.

Yes @Scienceguy Labs, I'm experiencing the exact same thing (also with no recording, that is noted). I have mine installed right next to the main downstairs TV, and when it chimes in, neither of the KEY trigger words ("Hey" or "Cortana") had been mentioned, just the listing indicator sound; other times its chimed in, in reaction to a simple conversation.
 

Samuel Hernandez1

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Moved from an Echo to the Black Friday invoke. Couple observations.

The Invoke is loud. Like really loud. I keep it around 10%-30%. But the actual voice could be tuned up a little higher relative to the music etc that plays. I have a hard time hearing the ping that let's me know she heard "Hey Cortana." My wife hates this, she can never trigger the device for some reason.

I'm also trying out spotify premium atm (99 cents for three months I think) and my favorite thing so far is launching what I'm listening to from my laptop/phone through the spotify app onto my Invoke. It's so simple. I don't know if the Echo Dot did this, but it's probably my favorite thing.

I miss Audible integration.

Phone calls are interesting but annoying to set up the first time. Otherwise they work perfect and if you're in the same room as the person you're calling it'll make a funny wub sound. I might try making a local business call at some point. (Also they show up as Unknown on Caller ID, just a heads up)

one of the most frustrating things so far is her stupid response "I can't help you with that right now" and how sparse the app is. I'd like to see more integration for non-Hub smart items. Like my TP-Link plugs.

I enjoy Cortana's sass. I told her yesterday Happy Birthday, she one said it wasn't her birthday and then accused me of forgetting.
 

newEDB

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For Caller ID, you need to set up you ID in Skype first; otherwise, it is shown as unknown. I believe it's left blank by default.

What is interesting is that you can type in any number as your phone number.
 

newEDB

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Calendar works for me. Sorry, maybe it's your calendar connection/setup instead of Cortana.

I have my Smartthings hub hooked up and use the Invoke for smart home commands, works great.

What phone did you use to set up your Invoke? I suspect that Microsoft treated us Windows Mobile users as second class citizen, and gave us incomplete features.
 

newEDB

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Is anybody else experiencing regular false Cortana wakeups? Every 45 minutes to an hour or so, Cortana's notification tone sounds off as if I've said "Hey, Cortana.". She seems to be very sensitive to sounds that are remotely similar to those key words or something is wrong.
Just checked the Cortana app to see if anything is being recorded, but nothing is.

I have the same issue. It waked up even if nobody called her. But I am not sure if it really waked fully up to the listening phase, it never recorded anything in her history book.
 

newEDB

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Invoke just delivers a shock to me, a huge shock:shocked:.

If you go to check you Microsoft account using a web browser, there is a Privacy tab. Click into the tab, scroll down, there is a button to "view and clear your voice activity". It will show when you called Cortana, and what you asked her to do. All your voice commands were recorded. I can replay them to hear myself clear and loud.

When I scrolled down to see what I asked yesterday, I noticed there is one entry "Play twit live." I never asked Cortana to do that since I never knew what twit live is. (I do now, a quick search tells me that it is somewhat a radio talk show). I click to hear the voice, IT IS NOT MINE:eck:. I then scrolled down, and noticed a few more suspicious ones. There is one "Pause it", it is NOT my voice, the audio environment does NOT sound like the room I placed my Invoke. A third one is "Stop", NOT my voice, and it is the very first voice command in a day, which means I haven't asked Cortana to do anything yet, then why would I asked her to stop?

This made me thinking: do somebody else's voices get recorded under my account? Is it equally possible that something I said got recorded so someone else can hear it?:devil: All 3 entries were from the same day (yesterday). Were there some system glitches on the server side?

Whom should I contact to clarify this issue? It totally shadows my trust of Invoke and Microsoft in general. Considering the recent delays after delays in their software development, I seriously believe their coders are not as competent as they should be.
 

Scienceguy Labs

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Invoke just delivers a shock to me, a huge shock:shocked:.

If you go to check you Microsoft account using a web browser, there is a Privacy tab. Click into the tab, scroll down, there is a button to "view and clear your voice activity". It will show when you called Cortana, and what you asked her to do. All your voice commands were recorded. I can replay them to hear myself clear and loud.

When I scrolled down to see what I asked yesterday, I noticed there is one entry "Play twit live." I never asked Cortana to do that since I never knew what twit live is. (I do now, a quick search tells me that it is somewhat a radio talk show). I click to hear the voice, IT IS NOT MINE:eck:. I then scrolled down, and noticed a few more suspicious ones. There is one "Pause it", it is NOT my voice, the audio environment does NOT sound like the room I placed my Invoke. A third one is "Stop", NOT my voice, and it is the very first voice command in a day, which means I haven't asked Cortana to do anything yet, then why would I asked her to stop?

This made me thinking: do somebody else's voices get recorded under my account? Is it equally possible that something I said got recorded so someone else can hear it? All 3 entries were from the same day (yesterday). Were there some system glitches on the server side?

Whom should I contact to clarify this issue? It totally shadows my trust of Invoke and Microsoft in general. Considering the recent delays after delays in their software development, I seriously believe their coders are not as competent as they should be.
Wow. Very interesting.
Is your Invoke near a TV? Does someone else live in your house with you?
A good way to test this out would be to mute your Invoke for a day or so and monitor your voice history.
 

Scienceguy Labs

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Ok, so I just visited my voice history on my account too. It seems that some of the random listening notifications that I've been getting are actually times when Cortana has been triggered by something that she heard on my TV. I too had odd recordings in my history that were not my voice. However, listening to them again, I realize that one recording was that of my local news broadcast. Another was that of a snippet from an episode of Little House on the Prairie. I had my Invoke sitting on the entertainment center next to my TV. I moved it too a different location yesterday, but still get random listening notifications. But I have not had any more odd recordings since I moved it. Bottom line...Cortana is triggered very easily by words that sound remotely similar to "Hey, Cortana".
 

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