Cortana Natural Language Queries - Feedback (Will go to Dev Team)

[Talderon]

[WARN]

Please use Cortana Feedback for ALL future feedback! This tool sends the information I have been sending to the same teams!!!

I have requested that this thread be locked!!!​

[/WARN]


Ok all. It's been established in other threads that I work for Microsoft. Let it be Crystal Clear, that I am in NO WAY officially/unofficially representing the company. I am a dedicated mobile enthusiast (which you can tell from my time on the Android forums and here) and just an overall Mobile Geek.

What I am hoping to accomplish through this thread is to spark up discussions and feedback for things people are trying to do with Cortana. Using natural spoken language as the input to request things from Cortana is a key component of Cortana. Once the Developer Preview is released into the wild and people start using it, we'll immediately start seeing the usage on the system, but what we won't see, is HOW and WHAT people are requesting and trying to do.

REQUEST FOR THIS THREAD:

Once you have Cortana up and running, try some things and see what you get. If something comes up perplexing or something that you think should come up differently, then please note it here. Please be sure to include as much detail as you can. Screenshots are AWESOME, but we need at the very least, the following:

Region/Language:
Exact Phrase Spoken:
Did Cortana parse this correctly:
Expected Results:
Actual Results:
Feedback:
(please include screenshots if you can)

Here is an example:

Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: What time is it in London?
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana to read me the current time verbally
Actual Results: Displayed a search result that showed me the current time in London
Feedback: It would be really nice if Cortana could read the time for a better hands-off experience.

I want to gather up as much of this info as I can so I can present it to our team as a representation of what people in the real world (outside out ours that is) are trying to do and help enhance Cortana.

Discussions are great, but there are a TON of threads for general Cortana discussions, so please use those for that, but let's try and keep this one somewhat clean.

I know, big ask but I thought I would try.

Thanks all!

 

[rockstarzzz]

[NOTE]Thread cleaned. Please only post feedback as requested by OP in the first post - nothing more and in no other format. This thread is NOT for chatting. Any chatting will be deleted, you've been warned[/NOTE]

[INFO]Here is the required format for each post after this one:

Region/Language:
Exact Phrase Spoken:
Did Cortana part this correctly:
Expected Results:
Actual Results:
Feedback:
(please include screenshots if you can)[/INFO]

 

[Johann Dirry]

I am quite impressed with the current state of cortana. Just wanted to try the examples from the Build 2014 conference, and have found some issues with the weather widget:

Region/Language: United States, German (Austria) / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken:

• always show temperatures in degrees celsius
• always use celsius
• use celsius by default
• set celsius to default
• etc

Did Cortana part this correctly: yes (60% correct)
Expected Results: always show the temperature in ?C instead of ?F (it's set in the systems region setting after all!)
Actual Results: shows temperatures in ?C after speaking the command; shows the weather again in ?F the next time
Feedback:

• respect the region settings of the user - it has priority over the country setting
• users should be able to change individual system settings using cortana
• weather widget should show ?C, ?F, or K instead of just ? for clarity (45? is an angle, not a temperature)
• temperatures in Kelvin are not relative, but absolute and therefore must not show a ? sign.

 

[Johann Dirry]

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken: translate i am hungry to chinese
Did Cortana part this correctly: yes
Expected Results: 我饿了
Actual Results: link to google translate (et. al.)
Feedback:

• should use bing translate for translation
• should provide search results after the translation
• should provide (optional) roundtrip translation, so that the user can check the translation for semantic correctness
• should provide a button to open the translation app, because this feature is often used when communicating with other people, so the user might want to translate more sentences/words or give the phone to the other person for a reply.

 

[Muessig]

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken: When should I leave for work?
Did Cortana part this correctly: yes
Expected Results: Cortana gives me a time to leave for work given current traffic conditions
Actual Results: bing search about leaving work
Feedback: Cortana knows where I work and the traffic conditions - should be able to combine knowledge to give me a figure.

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken: Recommend a game for me
Did Cortana part this correctly: yes
Expected Results: I'm taken to the top games on the WP Store
Actual Results: bing search about recommending me a game
Feedback: Cortana asks me if I want a free game or paid for, shows me the top apps from the correct category.

 

[Johann Dirry]

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken:

• Solve ex to the power of two equals four
• solve ex squared equals four

Did Cortana part this correctly: no ("so is extra power tool requests for", "search text me that's the quest for", etc.)
Expected Results: solve x^2 = 4 ⇒ x = ?2
Actual Results: does not recognize the sentence
Feedback:

• it works with text input, so it seems, that the language recognition did not had enough training with math questions
• let the user teach cortana new words and upload speech samples that can be used to train the language recognition engine.

 

[boothes18]

Region/Language: US
Exact Phrase Spoken: "Do you like Bill Gates."
Did Cortana part this correctly: yes
Expected Results: A joke..... "of course" or something like that
Actual Results: A bing search
Feedback:

 

[GlenniBoy]

Region/Language: United States(US) but living in Germany / English(US)
Exact Phrase Spoken: Navigate me to my grandparents
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes (navigate me to my grandparents)
Expected Results: Open's up HERE Drive and brings me to my grandparents
Actual Results: Does a Bing search
Feedback:

• The place grandparents is in the list of the places
• Navigation works with the exact phrase if i say "navigate me to my home" or "navigate me to my school"
• Needs to navigate me everywhere where I want

 

[SpaceyO]

Region/Language: English
Exact Phrase Spoken: "Tell me a joke"
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana should tell me a joke
Actual Results: Cortana asks me who I'd like to text
Feedback: This works when I enter "Tell me a joke" as plain text, and has worked once with voice. All voice attempts, except for that one, give me this (Notice Cortana definitely understands the words I'm saying):

 

[maks327]

Region/Language: US / English
Exact Phrase Spoken: N/A - Opened Cortana at 5:00 AM
Did Cortana Part this Correctly: N/A
Expected Results: See the "Good morning! Let's get your day started" daily glance
Actual Results: No daily glance shown, just normal interest feed.
Feedback: I wake up at 4:30 for work and leave the house by 05:00 AM. I want my daily glance at this time. The daily glance did show up later (probably after 6:00 AM). Maybe she'll learn about my habits after a few more days? If she won't, it'd be great if she could!

Thanks for all of your time and info on these forums.

 

[MeWhoElse]

Region/Language: USA English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Wake me up every day at 8am.
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Cortana to set an alarm for every day at 8am.
Actual Results: Alarm set as "only once" for 8am.
Feedback: To accept values for specific day of week, week days or weekends. Also recurring or not.

 

[swanlee]

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken: Set a reminder for a week before mothers day
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Reminder to be set May 4th
Actual Results: Reminder set to April 17th on first attempt, reminder set to April 27th on second attempt
Feedback:
While I understand this is slightly complex it only takes basic math to equate a week = 7 days and 7 days - May 11th = May 4th
This would be how I use reminders, a week before a birthday, a holiday etc.

 

[Talderon]

[NOTE]Posts from this point and above have been added and submitted.[/NOTE]

 

[SpaceyO]

Region/Language: English
Exact Phrase Spoken: (Typed) Remind me to get soup when I'm at the store
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes, she set the reminder
Expected Results: Reminder should have gone off as I pulled into the parking lot, or walked into the store.
Actual Results: Reminder didn't go off until I left the store. Sitting in my car, I checked to make sure I had set the reminder. When I tapped on the store in Places, the reminder went off.
Feedback: It's a good thing I remembered the soup Seriously, I'm not sure what to make of this little glitch. 1st location based reminder so it could be just figuring things out. Will try another one later.

 

[narv]

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: Call me Daniel
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Set my name for "what to call me" to "Daniel"
Actual Results: asked me who I wanted to call from my phone
Feedback: Would like to be able to change my "name" through the voice command instead of having to type it in the settings for cortana.

(This one is from the video Daniel Rubino did but I would like it as well)
Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: go to wpcentral.com || browse wpcentral.com
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Opens up IE 11 at this web address
Actual Results: bing search
Feedback: Similar to how google now does it, launch the web browser to a certain website from voice command. While the bing search comes up with the result and I can click on it, just an extra step that can be avoided. Tighter integration with the core MS apps would be great!

 

[anon(5352534)]

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: What is the rating of Casino Royale
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Say/show me the imdb/rotten tomato rating of the movie
Actual Results: SHOWED me mpaa rating (PG-13)
Feedback: Show both imdb/RT and mpaa rating.

 

[anon(5352534)]

Region/Language: US English
Exact Phrase Spoken: How far is the moon/sun from the earth in kilometers / lightyears
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: tell me the distance in the asked units
Actual Results: Searched the web for the query
Feedback: It works when you just ask , how far is the moon (gives answer in miles). Not everybody uses miles.

 

[jsjohnson1]

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken: What time is high tide in Charleston today
Did Cortana part this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Tell me high tide times or display them
Actual Results: A comment like "doesn't look like it...the forecast is..." followed by the forecast. I think she understands the loose correlation between tidal information and weather but there is no tidal info provided
Feedback:
It would be great not to have to read through tide tables or to have to scan through my tide app when all I want is the next hi/lo tide and if possible the +/- ft. rating of that tide.

 

[betaorionis]

Region/Language: United States, English
Exact Phrase Spoken: When do I need to leave for my next appointment?
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Somewhat
Expected Results: Tell me what time I will need to leave, incorporating traffic and location data, for my next calendar event
Actual Results: Cortana told me what my next event is and told me what time it will be. Did not incorporate time to its location.
Feedback: It's almost there, I'd just like to be able to on-demand bring up how long it will take to get to my next event so I don't have to separately ask "what's my next appointment?.. okay, how long will it take to get to ___?". That would be super useful! Thanks

 

[Winphoner]

Region/Language: United States / English (United States)
Exact Phrase Spoken: what's my name
Did Cortana parse this correctly: Yes
Expected Results: Reply back to me with my name as configured
Actual Results: Does a web search for "what's my name"
Feedback: It would be nice for Cortana to have a bit of a conversational side, and be able to understand when I mean myself, or my family/friends/SO. This kind of context should significantly improve searches, and have a better feedback to the user. I should always be able to initiate a search directly by saying "search for xxx"


I just wanted to add that the functionality is similar for the following queries, which could be much more personal:
Exact Phrase Spoken: Who am I?
Exact Phrase Spoken: Who is my girlfriend?
Exact Phrase Spoken: Where do I work?
Exact Phrase Spoken: Where do I live?