Cortana told me to leave for work this morning...

[jleebiker]

Today I was waiting downtown at a non-work/non-home location to pick up my daughter who was late, and I had another looming appointment that I had entered in my calendar. I had set a 15 min reminder, but 20 min before the meeting Cortana gave me a message that given traffic conditions I needed to leave to get to my appointment. If not for that I probably would have been late. That was the first time I had received that kind of notice. Thanks, Cortana!

Edit to add: I don't often enter the addess of the meeting when I set up calendar events, but I did this time so that is clearly essential for receiving this kind of reminder.

Did she notify you as a pop-up or as a verbal reminder?

 

[Reebs Reebs]

I love this feature, here's what I want to see added:
Cortana, like most other GPSs take me through the major highway which usually has a lot of traffic. I use back roads. As of today, I don't have the option to change my commute in Cortana.
This morning, I had meeting at another location, one that's not saved in my places. But I had the address saved in the calendar. It couldn't figure out that I needed to be at another address and tell me that I needed to leave. I also asked Cortana: How long do I need to get to my next meeting. How far is my next meeting location.. and all other variations. I just couldn't figure out that I needed to be at Address 123 Main St at 9 AM.

 

[anon(8555314)]

jleebiker wrote: "Did she notify you as a pop-up or as a verbal reminder? "

It was a toast notification.

 

[c0wb0ycliche]

jleebiker wrote: "Did she notify you as a pop-up or as a verbal reminder? "

It was a toast notification.

I am curious how Cortana decides when/for what appointments to do this.

I set up a fake appointment with an address and waited - and got no "time to leave" notification. It showed current traffic on the live tile, and if I tapped the Cortana live tile, it showed traffic my daily glance, but even when it was past the point of getting to the appointment on time, it never notified me to leave.

I really, really, really hope they add some transparency and fine tuning to this process. The commuting and traffic features are incredible in theory, but if it's anyone's guess when they will work, that makes them nearly useless. Check boxes for "remind me to leave to get to all calendar appointments on time" and "show traffic for appointments with reminders turned off" would be a good start, as well as actual management of the commute stuff, like Here Drive+.

 

[anon(123856)]

[h=1]Cortana told me to leave for work this morning...[/h]Big deal. My wife tells me that every day! :grin:

 

[ttsoldier]

Yaa..

I still don't know how she identifies home and work....or other places

nvm.Got it.

I find it easier to add home/work address by using the Maps app because the search result is not always accurate (from where I live at least).
So, this is how I do it:-

• Launch Maps
• Tap + Hold the location
• Tap the pop-up pin
• Press add to fav button, choose Home/Work/Others and you're set.

 

[Corvodin]

She guesses based on the amount of time you spend in those places, and the time of day. For instance, she guessed where my home was based on me being there in the evenings. She guessed where my school is based on the fact that I spend most of my day there.

 

[Julian Diaz1]

Hi, why cortana doesn't me to leave the work? I live in Argentina, the traffic information isn't available for Maps app right? Must be that

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

Hi, why cortana doesn't me to leave the work? I live in Argentina, the traffic information isn't available for Maps app right? Must be that

If you can't see traffic on maps, then you wont get that reminder

 

[c0wb0ycliche]

I did some playing around with Google Now on a friend's Nexus to sort of see how they compare, and I was left a little concerned.

Cortana's theoretical ability to automatically detect home/work and provide proactive information is great as an idea, but it doesn't seem to work as well as Google Now does.

On both phones I created an appointment with a location and with a reminder for a few hours out.

On the Nexus phone, it showed a card (very similar to how it looks in Cortana) with traffic info and said what time you would need to leave to get their on time. An hour before it prompted a general notification that I had the appointment.

On my phone (Icon) it showed the traffic information when I opened Cortana. An hour prior, as set up, it also notified me that I had an appointment.

On the Nexus, it prompted when it was a few minutes before you would have to leave. Cortana didn't do anything lol.

When the appointment time came both the Nexus and Cortana showed no more information - but the Nexus, recognizing that my friend wasn't at home, showed the time/traffic to get home.

Cortana has not ever shown this, but if you ask will tell you.

What I'd like to see is the ability to always see your travel time to your favorite places when you open Cortana (or be able to select which places you want to see time to) instead of the sort of "mysterious" way it works now.

The same thing with "leave on time" notifications. There seems to be some under the surface mechanism that determines if you get or don't get them.

 

[ttsoldier]

I did some playing around with Google Now on a friend's Nexus to sort of see how they compare, and I was left a little concerned.

Cortana's theoretical ability to automatically detect home/work and provide proactive information is great as an idea, but it doesn't seem to work as well as Google Now does.

On both phones I created an appointment with a location and with a reminder for a few hours out.

On the Nexus phone, it showed a card (very similar to how it looks in Cortana) with traffic info and said what time you would need to leave to get their on time. An hour before it prompted a general notification that I had the appointment.

On my phone (Icon) it showed the traffic information when I opened Cortana. An hour prior, as set up, it also notified me that I had an appointment.

On the Nexus, it prompted when it was a few minutes before you would have to leave. Cortana didn't do anything lol.

When the appointment time came both the Nexus and Cortana showed no more information - but the Nexus, recognizing that my friend wasn't at home, showed the time/traffic to get home.

Cortana has not ever shown this, but if you ask will tell you.

What I'd like to see is the ability to always see your travel time to your favorite places when you open Cortana (or be able to select which places you want to see time to) instead of the sort of "mysterious" way it works now.

The same thing with "leave on time" notifications. There seems to be some under the surface mechanism that determines if you get or don't get them.

One word.
Beta

 

[dgr_874]

One word.
Beta

Just because its beta does not mean it should be completely mysterious on how it works.

I'm so tired if everyone saying "its beta" like that excuses every issue people have. Windows Phones is not in a place where Microsoft can afford to screw its software up and its market share will be ok. They need to make sure its flagship software works for people.

 

[Akhilesh Bhambhani]

Is all of this data stored on Microsoft servers to prepare personalized ads? I think this is more scary than amazing. But then again I might be paranoid.

When it comes to Privacy Microsoft can be trusted (I guess) unlike Google.

 

[c0wb0ycliche]

Just because its beta does not mean it should be completely mysterious on how it works.

I'm so tired if everyone saying "its beta" like that excuses every issue people have. Windows Phones is not in a place where Microsoft can afford to screw its software up and its market share will be ok. They need to make sure its flagship software works for people.

I agree to an extent. Maybe Talderon can give some insight as to whether these issues (time to leave reminders, commute info, traffic to favorites) is deliberate (and due to the "mysterious" behind the scenes stuff) or are just bugs that need to be worked out since its beta.

E.g. Is there a time range, location range, favorite places connection etc. That is necessary for leave on time notifications for them to "fire," or should they always fire if you have an event with a time and place.

 

[neall141]

Not sure if anyone posted a screenshot of this... for setup, the only thing I did was add Work and Home to Cortana's notebook. I don't use any navigation apps for my commute. Also booked a flight yesterday and she saw it via my email confirmations and offered to track the flights.

 

[DaT Franchise]

I had both my work and home in my favorites sense day one and never got any leave for work reminders so 3 days ago I deleted both and im waiting for her to ask me if this is home or work, the last week has been busy so work has been 16 hours at that location and the rest at home. All location stuff turned on except for WiFi sense.

 

[Splacknuk]

Cortana learned where I was going and when I wanted to be there in regards to work... but after reminding me this morning, she still wanted me to take the highway - which I never do - to get there.

Would have been even cooler had she noticed the path I drive every day also. But it was still cool that she reminded me to leave today!

 

[theefman]

I dont drive to work but today Cortana is showing me estimated driving time information from my work to my home which includes traffic information. Both my home and work were set manually sometime last week so it seems Cortana is indeed learning in the background. Its alive!

 

[ajj3085]

As mentioned above, that I pretty difficult. The most I can get it like town names. Can't narrow down

I think after you get to where you actually work you can ask Cortana where you are, and then you can ask her to save the location. That way you'll use your GPS coordinates.

 

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

Here, Reminders based on geofencing don't work. What I could do to fix that? :[