MS should integrate Cortana with HERE Maps, not the built in one

[MrWhiteman]

HERE maps will be phased out soon mate when MS completes the buyout. The new MS maps IS here maps so don't worry about it for now. There will be plenty more updates soon as I think MS is getting very heavy on the mobile market and it shows. Loads of my mates now have windows phones.

 

[Talderon]

HERE maps will be phased out soon mate when MS completes the buyout. The new MS maps IS here maps so don't worry about it for now. There will be plenty more updates soon as I think MS is getting very heavy on the mobile market and it shows. Loads of my mates now have windows phones.

Completely Inaccurate.

Microsoft bought the Nokia Handset Devices and Hardware Division. This did NOT include ANY of the HERE products. NONE.

There are MANY facets to Nokia other than their phones and tablets. They have networking hardware/software, the HERE apps and more.

Here Maps is COMPLETELY different. When you search Maps from many devices and services, you are presented with Map Tiles that belong to one of a few companies. Google being one and Nokia being another. If you use Google Maps and for a while Apple Maps on the iPhone, those tiles were all sourced from Google.

Bing Maps uses tiles supplied by Nokia, as well as Yahoo and a some others.

The HERE applications and the Microsoft applications are completely separate even though they use the same source. Microsoft won't phase out Nokia HERE Maps or any other HERE application because we do not own them.

As for the Cortana integration, it's up to Nokia HERE to do that, not MS.

Hope this clears a few things up!

 

[Guzzler3]

As for the Cortana integration, it's up to Nokia HERE to do that, not MS.

I really hope that Nokia works on integrating Cortana with HERE. I find the routing algorithm in HERE to be superior than the Microsoft Maps (at least where I live).

 

[Kunal Dudwadkar]

Even for me (In India) HERE maps works best. The MS maps lacks lots of details and the scout thing doesn't work at all. In fact the pointer in MS maps jumps every 10 seconds to different locations and never stops at the current location :\

 

[WPit]

Under maps settings you can set the default gps as HERE and Cortana, despite not integrated, will execute it if you ask her to do so. I always do after getting the georeferencing alerts. Easy and accurate. I know, not the same thing, but. For example, in the morning I always get this, "Sir, time to leave for work". After this alert, if I ask her to "get me there", she does it launching HERE maps. Well, before this, actually I always ask how is traffic, than the "get me there" works if I want (usually to another place, not work of course).

 

[Antchexec]

I do not have Cortana yet, only WP8.1 from the UK, so, I can only talk from what I suspect will be the case, based on the options available and reading "How-to" articles.

From this, it seems to me that the main problem is NOT directional guidance; since, as people have already pointed out, one can set the default SatNav app to be 'Here Drive+' in the Maps settings. Moreover, the in-built app does not have voice guidance, so why would anyone do otherwise? If anyone uninstalls 'Here Drive', it appears to me that they will have no voice guidance.

The problem, as far as I am concerned, is that I have built a substantial "Collection" in Here Maps, and I fear this will not be accessible to Cortana. My 'Favourites' in Here Maps do not appear in the native Maps app, and I am instructed, on the Windows 'Meet Cortana' website, to enter 'Favourites' in "Maps" for Cortana to access; which I am assuming means the native app, not 'Here Maps'. In other words, all my Favourites in Here maps are not accessible and I will have to re-enter them all in the native app - which I will never do because there are hundreds that have been added over several years.

Having said that navigation is not a problem, this does have some implications, at least for me, in that regard. For example, in Here Maps I may have entered a 'favourite' by simply adding my current location, and labelled that as, say, "Famous Castle". If I wish to get back to 'Famous Castle', and ask Cortana to get directions for me, she will have no idea what I am talking about, because that is a place-mark in Here Maps, not in the native Map application. For my part, I will have no idea of the proper address, so will have to simply ask Cortana to open Here Maps (or Drive) and I will have to select it manually, I suppose.

I would not have thought it beyond the wit of Microsoft to get its native app to import (or use) the favourites one has set in Here Maps; or for me to have the option to set 'Here Maps' as a default, as I do with 'Here Drive'. Since Nokia and Microsoft have both embraced and encouraged the use of Here Maps, it is somewhat irritating that Cortana wants me to teach her something, which I would have thought was readily available for her to find out for herself. But what do I know that Cortana doesn't - apart from my favourite places, of course!

 

[RichardBurt]

MS Maps (via Bing) allows you to import your favourites.

Here (Nokia) doesn't allow you to export your favourites (from here.com)

The problem is with Nokia, not Microsoft.

Two different companies, two different licencing strategies.

 

[Antchexec]

I will not argue with your point since, frankly, I do not care who is at fault. MS have a license for Here Maps and bought Nokia, which integrated 'Here' into the Lumia phones, which Microsoft bought. If I buy (or own) a Lumia, I now have a Microsoft phone. If that phone is deficient, then I hold MS responsible. My 'Here' web-based interface syncs with the 'Here Maps App' on my phone. Microsoft can readily have my full permission for its map app to do the same. However, if MS built its app to be incompatible with the preexisting Here app, that is MS's fault. I had no other maps on my phone, prior to the WP8.1 update, only 'Here'; so MS have introduced the later app, and should have ensured it was compatible. If the MS app was first, and already incompatible, then it should not have introduced it as the mandatory basis for Cortana, at all.

You can come back with all the technicalities you like, but as an end-user, I do not care about the problems of MS or Nokia; I only care about my problems. My problem is that I can spend countless hours, ploughing through my hundreds of place-marks, manually entering them into a new, inferior mapping application, which I will rarely use except when Cortana does so; or have them unavailable to Cortana (as far as I understand it, currently). Worse still, we know full well that this will probably all change, in some way, soon, and all that work will either have been unnecessary (because MS makes 'Here Maps' available as a default) or, even worse, MS introduce some entirely different app that requires I do it all over again. No thanks - I would rather just ask Cortana to open Here Drive and select my existing favourite places manually. It just seems a shame that I will have to do so, that is my point.

Obviously, the alternative to all this is that 'Here' will hope to avoid some users choosing to enter future Favourites into the native app, by making its products more integrated, from its end. However, if people choose to go this route, if they 'save current location' as a favourite whilst in 'Here Drive', then they will have to do it again in the native app. To me, this seems like a complete mess, which it most certainly was not, prior to the introduction of the MS maps app.

I should add the proviso, as previously mentioned, that I am making these comments without actually having Cortana, yet; so I will certainly reserve full judgment until I know what is the reality.

 

[RichardBurt]

Completely Inaccurate.

Microsoft bought the Nokia Handset Devices and Hardware Division. This did NOT include ANY of the HERE products. NONE.

There are MANY facets to Nokia other than their phones and tablets. They have networking hardware/software, the HERE apps and more.

Here Maps is COMPLETELY different. When you search Maps from many devices and services, you are presented with Map Tiles that belong to one of a few companies. Google being one and Nokia being another. If you use Google Maps and for a while Apple Maps on the iPhone, those tiles were all sourced from Google.

Bing Maps uses tiles supplied by Nokia, as well as Yahoo and a some others.

The HERE applications and the Microsoft applications are completely separate even though they use the same source. Microsoft won't phase out Nokia HERE Maps or any other HERE application because we do not own them.

As for the Cortana integration, it's up to Nokia HERE to do that, not MS.

Hope this clears a few things up!

It's very refreshing to read an intelligent, coherent reply on these forums.

Well done that man.

 

[Antchexec]

"MS Maps (via Bing) allows you to import your favourites."

OK, and always being keen to learn anything, how do I do this? One of the reasons I am so miffed about the change in maps, is because I have been here before. I had hundreds and hundreds of place marks in Google Earth (and still use that extensively) and had to get all my important place marks into 'Here' (because Here refuses to allow imports from KMZ files, despite my regular pleas).

So, cut a long story short, I have managed to get all my GE place marks into Bing Maps (after having to divide my already extensive folder structure even further, due to the import limits). Now, how do I get these Bing place marks into the WP8.1 map app?

 

[RichardBurt]

They should sync automagically as long as you are logged in to the maps app

 

[Antchexec]

How does one "log in" to the maps app? I can see no option for that. I can open it, is that what you mean?

 

[Antchexec]

From some little research I have just carried out, it would appear that the WP8.1 Map App cannot sync with the 'Places' in Bing Maps. So, whilst I endorse the condemnation of 'Here', for not enabling integration with the Maps app in WP8.1, surely this must pale in comparison to the Microsoft WP8.1 map app not synching with Bing Maps place marks. The Bing places are stored in our Microsoft accounts, and the Map app is on a phone similarly linked. That these are not readily and seamlessly available (if indeed that is the case) strikes me as ludicrous.

Do these companies actually go out of their way to cause users more work and hassle; or is it just a natural talent they possess?