Cortana: Is she helping you in a real sense?

[Guytronic]

As she stands now in beta Cortana is getting a lot of attention.
The shakedown certainly isn't over yet.
So after the short time she has been running on thousands\millions of WP8.1 preview phones the question is:

Is Cortana truly your digital assistant for the real world or just an app to play around with?

 

[iop777]

For me, she is my assistant. At least for now, I mean the novelty of her could wear off but for now I am using her to keep myself organized and I find her really helpful. Even my iPhone friends are considering switching from seeing how much better she is than Siri.

 

[realwarder]

I've used her to set reminders which is going to be really useful for someone who forgets. As well as searches and texting etc.

I have to say I'm genuinely impressed and think she or tools like here will quickly change the way we interact with computers. Voice recognition used to be terrible, but she is remarkably accurate, or appears to be.

I hope this is a never ending "Beta" with Microsoft and they continue to look at failed voice commands that throw up Bing search results, find commonality in patterns and rapidly grow their engine to provide more tuned responses, as well as provide a forum for improvement suggestions.

 

[ajb1965]

I find it quite helpful. I got used to speech to text on my Droid, so my friends and family are already used to me talking to my phone and stopped asking if I was talking to them months and months ago!

The geofencing and reminders in general are more than worth a few odd looks from passers by for me��

 

[thelorenzzo]

Yes! I use her a lot. I'm the type of person who always forgets something so I basically use her to remind me anything from asking my mom about something when I call her to picking up stuff from the store. She's amazing and I hope she will get better and better For example, I'd love to say "Turn off my ringer when I arrive at work" or even IF-requests like "If my mother doesn't call me until 9PM, remind me to call her" or "If it's rainy tomorrow, remind me to take my umbrella after I wake up" and stuff like this.

 

[JPDVM2014]

Yes! Her people and location reminders are a lifesaver for me. I'm really forgetful. I don't have a real use for her other than the reminders as I don't really need to schedule appointments or what not, but she is completely worth it even for just the reminders.

 

[blue1k]

Use it everyday. Love the reminder feature when I arrive to a location. Word recognition is awesome. Makes SVoice seem like a steaming pile of poo

 

[Shankar chandran S]

When i first used Cortana , she was giving everything as a web search , it was really annoying, then I understood that she was not understanding a word I was saying in my Indian accent , so I began to type in the remainders of client call and shopping list ..
To my surprise, she work with all the key locations in my city (in south India) and also identify my home and work automatically (I try to teach her that before but I failed, it was asking for a landmark for my home).
But now we two go along just fine. She began to understand me a little of what I speak.
The problem I face is the continuity of speech, she can bring up the weather and followed it with “ in Celsius”, work very fine. But if I do a remainder entry and after setting it, ask her to add to calendar, wale web search.

 

[prasath1234]

No way I can't use her because she sucks my battery life on my already low battery phone lumia 820.she is for great battery phones.

Sent from my C2305 using WPCentral Forums mobile app

 

[meandu229]

I really like the geofences, got one for home, work, shop and will add more soon,, being able to set reminders to do something next time I go to a certain shop or similar is very useful.

 

[avigyan]

Yes she definitely is! With the horrible Xbox music app, I have to rely on her for the music playback. Plus today she actually helped me find Chinese restaurants near me when I needed it.

 

[Sebaslight]

Nah.. I don't use personal assistants... I mean, i can do all of those things by myself without having to talk to my phone, i don't use maps to get directions and don't set reminders and don't need weather forecast... But the girl is pretty funny, i play a lot with her and if im taking a nap is useful as an alarm cause i don't have to move... Anyway, have a good week

 

[SwimSwim]

Not my full on assistant just yet, but she is very helpful. Definitely far more than a gimmick or party trick, like Siri was (or at least when I played with Siri, it might have improved by now).

I especially appreciate the fact that you can type queries, very useful since I don't want to talk to my phone in public. Means I get all the benefits, but don't have to be "that guy."

She still leaves a few things to be desired, but very solid build for a beta. Initial release and she's already toe-to-toe with Siri and Google Now, and things can only get better from this point forward. I can't wait to see how she'll improve as time passes and she leaves beta.

Yes she definitely is! With the horrible Xbox music app, I have to rely on her for the music playback. Plus today she actually helped me find Chinese restaurants near me when I needed it.

Very true. I don't know what it is, but this version of Xbox Music is far, far worse than the downloadable version I was using on WP8 (basically the exact same app currently on WP8.1, but it was exclusive to Music Pass subscribers, and wasn't a POS).

So yeah, I use Cortana whenever possible to avoid using the current abomination that is the Xbox Music app. Hopefully they'll update it soon.

 

[jleebiker]

Yes. I do a lot of driving and find her very useful to voice reminders and notes for my personal thoughts.
Also, the geofencing is very useful. She has reminded me on a few occasions for things I would normally have forgotten about.

My real-life assistant is getting a little jealous. ;-) Just kidding. She DID ask me about my Windows Phone though. She has an iPhone and I've caught her asking Siri more things this week.

 

[Guytronic]

Haven't touched tried Cortana in 2 weeks.
I disabled the feature.

 

[roni09riku]

Her reminders feature has really helped me a lot. I tend to forget things I'm supposed to do while playing or bringing specific things when I go out. She's also handy with the weather since all I need to do is ask her instead of going to the net. So yeah, she's quite helpful.

 

[wrm1]

I've used her for Reminders, for quiet hours, for texting while driving...today my mother emailed her Expedia trip itinerary for a July visit she is making and when I opened Cortana the first thing she wanted to know was whether I wanted her to track the flights. She is so much handier than Google now ever was.

 

[bayanii]

She is definitely my assistant.
1. Sets up appointments
2. Reads out text messages while driving.
3. Helps me respond to text messages.
4. Lets me know if my average time to get home from work has increased due to traffic.
5. Sets up reminders.
6. Sets up alarms.
7. Opens applications.
8. Tells me jokes.
9. Sets up quiet hours.
10. Finds whatever locations I need.
11. Gives updates on my sports and weather.

Granted all of these listed above already existed in our Windows phone. Its just nice to press a button, speak your command, and receive the same results without having to navigate.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I impressed my mother with Cortana today.

My mother wanted to know when Staples was open today.

I asked Cortana, "What hours is Staples open?" Cortana answered, "I found 2 Staples. Which one do you want? (and named the two locations)."

I said, "Strongsville." Cortana replied, "Staples is open until 6 PM."