I know those of us using W10M are in the < 0.5% market share crowd and we won't convince our friends that, "no really, W10M is so much better!!" anytime soon, but after flirting with Android for four days (including a road trip with lots of car time), I'm convinced I am not at all ready to leave W10M. The "benefits" of Android (apps I guess?) came nowhere near the drawbacks, and instead of droning on I'll just focus on how much better the integration of Cortana in the Car is than Android Auto.
Cortana is a phone conversation, not a media app.
This is the most fundamental difference between Cortana on W10M (Windows Phone) and 'Ok Google' on Android. Having a simulated phone conversation with Cortana takes advantage of all the features your car already has built-in to Bluetooth conversations (and has for the past decade). Many cars automatically mute media/audio (or pause it), turn down your A/C fan speed, and more, so that people can hear you on the other end and you can get back to what you were doing before the conversation seamlessly. In this case it is Cortana, but how sweet it is. The dictation is perfect and I never miss a note on the song I was listening to, perfectly resuming when the Cortana conversation is over.
With Android Auto, it was immensely frustrating. I had to have the Android Auto App running, the media selection in my car had to be on my phone (not the radio, for example), the system had to be unmuted, and then ONLY if all of these things were true could you then interact by saying 'OK Google' which worked about 1/3 the time. Once it did come up, about another 1/3 the time it would pick up a few words from the podcast I was listening to and do a wonderful Google search for me on whatever it heard. How nice!
rly:
Seriously, this may seem like a minor area, but I use Cortana for sending/receiving texts every single time I'm in my car, flawlessly. When I remember something I use her to remind me, flawlessly. I can ask her to dial a contact, flawlessly. I can even email someone with her, but I do that less often. And it all works just brilliantly with any standard Bluetooth connection - no Android Auto/Car Play needed, not to mention the ability to put her on speed-dial - no yelling 'OK GOOGLE' to wake it up.
Has anyone done a full in-depth comparison of this to show just how bad those systems are? It really opened my eyes to yet another example of how great the core of W10M is even if the app store is limited.
Cortana is a phone conversation, not a media app.
This is the most fundamental difference between Cortana on W10M (Windows Phone) and 'Ok Google' on Android. Having a simulated phone conversation with Cortana takes advantage of all the features your car already has built-in to Bluetooth conversations (and has for the past decade). Many cars automatically mute media/audio (or pause it), turn down your A/C fan speed, and more, so that people can hear you on the other end and you can get back to what you were doing before the conversation seamlessly. In this case it is Cortana, but how sweet it is. The dictation is perfect and I never miss a note on the song I was listening to, perfectly resuming when the Cortana conversation is over.
With Android Auto, it was immensely frustrating. I had to have the Android Auto App running, the media selection in my car had to be on my phone (not the radio, for example), the system had to be unmuted, and then ONLY if all of these things were true could you then interact by saying 'OK Google' which worked about 1/3 the time. Once it did come up, about another 1/3 the time it would pick up a few words from the podcast I was listening to and do a wonderful Google search for me on whatever it heard. How nice!
rly:Seriously, this may seem like a minor area, but I use Cortana for sending/receiving texts every single time I'm in my car, flawlessly. When I remember something I use her to remind me, flawlessly. I can ask her to dial a contact, flawlessly. I can even email someone with her, but I do that less often. And it all works just brilliantly with any standard Bluetooth connection - no Android Auto/Car Play needed, not to mention the ability to put her on speed-dial - no yelling 'OK GOOGLE' to wake it up.
Has anyone done a full in-depth comparison of this to show just how bad those systems are? It really opened my eyes to yet another example of how great the core of W10M is even if the app store is limited.
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