Why does Cortana require Location Services to work?

[Zombi_Fear]

I was trying to lower battery life usage and as normal I turned off Location Services as it uses a lot of power, but once I had done that I discovered that Cortana was gone and when I pressed search it would take me to Bing Search. Does anyone know why she requires Location Services as you can always ask for things with the location and is there a way to have location services off and Cortana on.

 

[BioticCharger]

As of now no, I don't think you can turn on Cortana without turning on location first. I guess she requires location data to answer certain queries such as "Where am I?" or "How's the weather today".

 

[Cinderella RT]

My weather app can do just fine without location so, no, this is not a valid argument.
So, if I ask where I am, she can just tell me to turn the location on or just go fuxx myself or some other funny line of hers. This argument is again invalid.

They do not allow to use it without location because they are afraid people will use the limited version without realizing there's more to Cortana than that.
That will cause a very bad public image for Cortana, which is something Microsoft definitely wants to avoid.

 

[a5cent]

Location based reminders is one of Cortana's most important features. That doesn't work without Location Services being turned on.

 

[anon(8555314)]

I don't think it is hard to imagine what would happen if Cortana was allowed to work without location services. These boards would be full of whiners complaining how Cortana is buggy and as sure as the sky is blue, this is evidence that MS is planning to kill Windows Phone.

 

[k72]

I agree it would be nice if she didn't require location. I typically choose extra battery over Cortana, unfortunately.

 

[nickniko]

that is really furstrating. I also like to turn off the location (to save battery or get rid of unnensessary tracking) and have to deal with cortana being off

The worst part of it is that if i forget to turn the locations back on and cortana remains off, she does not remind me the "reminders" she had to give before. I actually missed several appointments because of that. She is not that clever you know!

 

[Rasetech]

I also don't understand this approach from MS. They could use this for another witty reply and some kind of interaction like:"I cannot answer this question if you don't allow me to know your location. Do you want me to turn on location?". I think nobody would be hurt by such a reply.

 

[Hypnopottamus]

As someone above noted, Cortana also has the ability to do Location Based notifications. In addition to that, Cortana can also estimate commute time using traffic data and your location.

 

[Rasetech]

Yeah but thats no reason to disable all other features that do not require location information.