Your UK Experience of Cortana

[Silviu Bogusevschi]

No slow responses for me.
US Cortana is more mature than the other ones, so soon we will get all of the features on the UK version.

 

[mikeycl]

Great, so Cortana UK continues getting worse then. First we lose impressions, then we don't get any updates that the US version has, commuting reminder stopped working, and now this...

If I wasn't a moderator, I'd be ranting...

I've noticed the same with mine.

They may well have pulled features for updating or are making changes. Possibly even going to final with it.

Am wondering about tweeting someone like Marcus Ash to see what is happening.

It may be worth being a little patient for the minute though.

 

[Pete]

I did think about tweeting Marcus as well, but he doesn't seem to be too open to answering questions over Twitter...

 

[Captains]

Anyone seeing that Cortana has been particularly slow to respond over the past couple of days? It's currently taking about 30 seconds to respond - sometimes telling me there's no internet connection when I clearly have one.

YEP. Same here & I'm in Australia. I never saw Impersonations & still don't. There are many things not working for Alpha.

 

[Jips]

Compared to Siri, cortina is a little under mature in areas, which is to be expected, but she is better in others.
use it daily for interests and news feeds, and find she does understand me most of the time.
he only thing I am a little disappointed at is ...
1. When you first go in, she is always 'Getting things ready'. Should already be there and instantly displayed.
2. Places to visit uses four square, which very few people use. Maybe she should integrate with Facebook places and/or google places which are more current.

 

[Pete]

I don't get the "getting things ready" message, not had that since I first set up Cortana. Cortana works immediately for me (sometimes a bit slow) and tells me if there's no network (in which case, she won't do anything at all).

Foursquare is probably a bit more relevant than Facebook places - given the amount of rubbish in my Facebook feeds, I wouldn't really like to get those kinds of suggestions.

There's still a long way to go with Cortana, we're all eager for more functionality.

 

[Vitor Salvatore Pierce]

Here in Brazil a lot people use Foursquare.

 

[shinsenai]

Recently added features like Insteon home automation commands or asking for the definition of words do not seem to work with Cortana UK. I wonder whether there is a delay in propagating features. Does either works for you (assuming you have Insteon for Hub for the home automation commands)?

 

[Pete]

Recently added features like Insteon home automation commands or asking for the definition of words do not seem to work with Cortana UK. I wonder whether there is a delay in propagating features. Does either works for you (assuming you have Insteon for Hub for the home automation commands)?

There's been a delay in any new features coming to the UK. We have still the same songs, the same jokes, the same interests. The only thing that seems to have changed since we got Cortana was the impressions were taken away.

 

[Sonu K]

There's been a delay in any new features coming to the UK. We have still the same songs, the same jokes, the same interests. The only thing that seems to have changed since we got Cortana was the impressions were taken away.

Guys, don't forget it's still Alpha. US cortana will be always ahead of UK cortana since US version is in Beta and MS's special US love which makes them ignore rest of the world. :eck:

 

[Pete]

Cortana UK is not Alpha. It's Beta, it says so in the top right corner. There should be a reasonable expectation that improvements to Beta functionality should replicate worldwide, but it seems this isn't the case.

If Cortana UK was officially Alpha, like with India, Australia, Canada, I might expect this kind of disparity.

 

[Jcmg62]

Ok, so I've been using the UK version for about a month and didn't want to stick my thoughts on here until I'd really given Cortana a run for her money.... What I don't get is the US version understood me at least 95% of the time. The UK version is getting my accent about 60-70% of the time, meaning I'm a LOT less likely to try and show off Cortana in public these days for fear of looking like a complete arse. And almost every question results in a plain bing search. And the voice.....WTF.....why would they ditch a perfectly good voice?! In a nutshell, its miles and miles away from being as good as the US version.

 

[Neil Black]

Not as brilliant as it was hyped up to be..... poor!

 

[rafaldo]

Ok, so I've been using the UK version for about a month and didn't want to stick my thoughts on here until I'd really given Cortana a run for her money.... What I don't get is the US version understood me at least 95% of the time. The UK version is getting my accent about 60-70% of the time, meaning I'm a LOT less likely to try and show off Cortana in public these days for fear of looking like a complete arse. And almost every question results in a plain bing search. And the voice.....WTF.....why would they ditch a perfectly good voice?! In a nutshell, its miles and miles away from being as good as the US version.

Totally agree with everything you say. The current state of UK Cortana actually deters me from using her.

 

[Michael Brooks5]

I think that UK Cortana has a slightly different API, or there is no API for her at the minute. I've tried the Wikipedia and Memo app and neither of them work properly when asking Cortana to do something with those apps.

E.g. I said "Wikipedia banana" and she opened up the app and tried getting a location. I then asked a second time and she opened it up, but not with the correct info. Asked again and she wouldn't even open it up, just kept using bing. :/

I only just found out you can ask her "What does a <animal> say" and she replies with their sound which is pretty cool. The fox one doesn't work yet though which was a let down...

 

[shinsenai]

For the time being, I've switched back to Cortana US. I miss the degree Celsius, but everything else works better, better voice, better selection of news, and more functionality including telling Cortana to switch on the lights when I get home, that's pretty cool

 

[pLUSpISTOL]

The UK accent is ******* atrocious. Switched back to the US version. As has been pointed out many times, it should be Jen Taylor's voice for all English regions or at least an option to choose.

 

[Ron Vin]

Switched back to US version. UK version is plain dumb.Why do they have to have a country related one and copy Siri in everything. Google Now is so much better but I simply do not want any of their **** on my WP

 

[Darren Walsh]

The UK accent is ******* atrocious. Switched back to the US version. As has been pointed out many times, it should be Jen Taylor's voice for all English regions or at least an option to choose.

I take it you're from England, I'm the same, anything that has our accent sounds crap cos we're so used to it, same with the soaps here in Ireland! Can't wait for Cortana to ask for Guinness lol

 

[OrangeBerry02]

I really don't want an electronic pa with an American accent ... particularly one that calls me "Chief"!! I guess I watch too much telly so I find it a blessed relief to hear the fantastic range of our own homegrown accents during my working day.

There are some excellent British voice actresses ... try these ... The Voice Agency Female Voices ... any of them do?

Edit 17.03: Charlotte Page is my favourite ... keep listening til you get to "the best of the best of the best of Catherine Jenkins" ... v funny!!