How you use Cortana?

[dayoungtx]

Hi all. I am trying to make sure I get the most out of Cortana, which I believe is one of the great differentiators for Windows Phone. Love to hear how you use her and any suggestions on how to get the most out of the personal assistant.

Thanks.

 

[barbaram]

honestly, I don't really use her. I did check yesterday to see who she predicted would win the football game. Other than that...I think until she can open her own notebooks she'll just be a parlor trick. Imagine: You create a notebook: List of NFL teams, then when you discover a new one you should be able to tell Cortana to open List of NFL teams and add line item Packers. I'm glad we have her, I like her jokes, but she's not much use.

 

[switch side method]

Using her as a reminder to get some item is a good idea. Like..... If your going to work you can say "remind me to pick up the milk when I get home" she will then use your GPS and when your near home she will remind you.

 

[AV2RY]

"Cortana give me direction to ..." that's it. Nothing else

 

[jnjroach]

I use her to call and text while driving, to set alarms and reminders, directions and traffic conditions, I've also used her to track flights....

We interact multiple times a day...

 

[switch side method]

I use her to call and text while driving, to set alarms and reminders, directions and traffic conditions, I've also used her to track flights....

We interact multiple times a day...

How do you get her to track flights? Would love to be able to test that

 

[jnjroach]

How do you get her to track flights? Would love to be able to test that

I gave access to my Email, so when I get Flight Confirmation Emails she asks if I want her to track it....

 

[switch side method]

Oh nice. Thanks for that. May have to "create" one myself and then email it to me and test it

 

[SpaceyO]

5-10 time-based reminders per day, location reminders (when they work properly...I still get reminded to pick something up at the store when I'm on the way out of the store), texts and calls while driving, general web searches, calendar additions, the occasional chit-chat stuff when I read that there's something new added...

Probably more too, but that's a fair list of how I use Cortana daily...

 

[aikidaves]

Reminders, appointments, directions, Bing searches, texts in my wife's car (mine doesn't have Bluetooth), calls sometimes.

 

[ams963]

I use it for appointments, weather and Bing Searches.

 

[Rick_Air]

Mainly reminders, never used them till Cortana. Location ones too, mainly the "when I get home" variety.
Once we get the "Hey Cortana" ability and I've upgraded I can see me using it even more.
Also like the ability to type questions and requests for when I don't want to look like a knob.

 

[OwenDL]

I actually find her very useful for talking to people text while I'm driving. Being able to text without looking away from the road is a huge plus. And the excellent voice recognition makes it about 85-95% accurate.

I also like asking her to find me stores, like an autoparts store, then I can easily select which location I want to go to, and then find the route. She enables laziness, in my case.

 

[herbertsnow]

She's my dirty dancer

 

[Ed Boland]

I have her play music by a particular artist sometimes when I don't feel like scrolling/searching. I also use her to open apps for the same reason.

 

[RumoredNow]

• Reminders - Time based and Geofenced
• Web Searches on just about anything - I love asking for one or two word items and checking Images to help pick new backgrounds, she's been great with that
• Silly Questions, trivia or real knowledge needs... Ties into web searches
• The Live Tile has pushed my News App off my start screen - I get lots of headlines on the tile and look inside for even more news categories; sort of its own RSS feed
• Set appointments and alarms verbally - same as Reminders, but the lack of typing stuff in makes it so much easier to set things up it is like a feature unto itself
• Directions - web info and navigation get tied together very nicely within Cortana; search for something and get directions in the mini-map results; one tap to open nav - it is automagical
• Music Searches - I have used the music find button once or twice to find out just what that song is that is playing... If I didn't know, she always got it - I have run some "tests" and she can't discover some of the more obscure stuff I listen to; she'll get better

There probably is more I'm not recalling ATM.

I am trying to get Cortana to track some flights for me. I think they are too far out, but coming closer. One issue with flight tracking - the email has to use the correct markup protocol to initiate auto tracking from an email scan.
See: http://forums.windowscentral.com/cortana/299529-has-anyone-gotten-flight-tracking-work-delta.html
Which leads me to the manual method: organic fertilizer: misc: flying with cortana
Still my flights are too far off in the future. The sites Cortana uses to track flights only have info for a short window of time. They don't keep months worth of data up to date as these flight numbers get recycled.

To get the most out of Cortana, definitely go through all the settings and fill in as much as you can. Put in some places with nicknames. Add Inner Circle contacts and give them nicknames. That way when you need to say things like, "Call my boss," Cortana can dial your wife :wink: or if you say, "Remind me to get rutabagas at the grocery store," you will get a notification to buy rutabagas when you get to your favorite food store.

To get the most out of Cortana you have to give it as much input as possible and use it as often as you can. The system is designed to learn from you and how you interact with it.

 

[rpac78]

I use Cortana mainly to get the quickest route home but also for making hands free calls/texts while driving.

 

[RumoredNow]

Sorta forgot this one as I use it rarely...

Open Cortana and engage listening > say "memo" or "take a note" > Cortana will ask for the note and record what you say > Cortana then saves the "Note" in OneNote as an audio file you can open, pin to start, share, etc...

 

[wpn00b]

flight tracking works for me but yes it has to be pretty close before it shows up.

 

[Jan Tomsic]

'Shuffle music'