Ideas to improve Cortana

[anon(8555314)]

In addition to the things that their boss likes, a real assistant would also need to know the things that their boss really dislikes.

I'd like to see a "dislike" section in the notebook. I don't need to know about local showing times for movies that feature actors that I strongly dislike, for example, or the nearby location of Hardy's or other food that I dislike.

 

[Reflexx]

I want to be able to ask her how far it is to a particular freeway exit at any point in time. Even if it's not the one that is the one in supposed to take in navigation or if I'm not using navigation.

 

[Alex Blast]

I don't know about you, but i really look forward to being awaken be Cortana herself, not some lousy beep beep tones. I'm talking about something that goes like:
- Alex..... Alex..... Honey... Rise and shine... It's 6:15 am now. You don't wanna be late for work, do you? Come on, time to wakey wakey!!!
And she might keep chirping something similar until I grab the phone or say "okay, I'm up" or maybe set snooze timer if I say "oh come on baby, 5 more minutes"... And when I say I'm up, she will proceed to give me briefings like weather, the day's schedule, top headlines and summaries of my interests...
May sound cheesy and a little bit paranoid, but that's what a real assistant is supposed to do.

 

[Captains]

with getting additional regions up and running.

woo hoo.:excited:

 

[Alex Blast]

Unless this could somehow backfire and be ridiculed, I think this would be a pretty fun gimmick. Easy to implement too. I'm not sure it would be loud enough though. Maybe supplement it with an actual alarm. ("Alex, it you don't get up this very minute, I'm going to have to start the alarm again..")

"Alex, I'm telling you. Get your *** up or I'll play deaf ears for the whole day!!!!"
☺

 

[Alex Blast]

Has anyone tried using PlexiVoice? Whenever you ask her a question, "what is a cheetah" for example, she will turn up with a brief spoken answer, with the source the info was taken from, most of the time Wikipedia, included. This, IMO, is kinda neat and convenient. Cortana should be like this, instead of giving Bing searches all the time.

 

[mary beth hale]

Can anyone tell if you would like Cortana to be listening right from the first time you press search to opening, and not to wait to press the mic button? I would love to...

Definitely!

 

[mary beth hale]

I can't remember this being discussed before, but the parsing of searches, particularly when it comes to directions, skips over my address book unless I have actually added an address to my "places" list.

I don't want to have to add every single entry from my address book as a "place" and would prefer asking Cortana, "Directions to John Doe's home," search my address book first and not just bring up web results (which obvioulsy will be wrong for a personal address.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am I doing it wrong?

Definitely yes to your suggestion. I have the same issue re: Cortana not being able to just pick someone out of contact list.

 

[mary beth hale]

Also definitely to OP suggestion.

 

[Lu520]

First thing Cortona Should do any thing wht we do manually with the phone related things

like:
1) It should adjust volume controls as per user input
2) Should open any type of settings(wht we have in settings)
3) Should Sync Mails
4) Should search in Mails
5) Close Opened Apps in Multitasking
6) Should do like Call XXXX Contact after 5 mins(thn it should call the user r should remind abt the call)
etc things.


If it does any thing with phone capabilities what we do manually then can extend further IMO

as of now the things performing by Cortona is absolutely stunning to me

 

[anon(8555314)]

Give an option to do something X min before or after arriving at saved location. I don't like to get my work reminders as I am pulling up in my car. I'd prefer to get them 10-15 min after arrival, or have that be an option to add when setting up the reminder.

 

[Reflexx]

I want a random variety of Cortana alarms. So if I tell her to wake me up at 7am, she'll do it different ways. Maybe after the alarm goes on for a little while without being answered she'll stay talking. Or maybe a good morning song.

 

[mozman68]

Definitely!

Just hold down the magnifying glass...

 

[bbobeckyj]

Repeat reminders, macro functions, delayed actions and the ability to control sound and settings. Such as every time I arrive at work, mute my phone, turn wifi off, and send an SMS.
Also the ability to recognise less exact or larger locations, such as a town and not a specific building or address.

 

[VelJharig]

(Realized that one of my comments in another thread really belonged in this one, so apologies for the duplicate post...​)

One of the things I really hope makes the "Coming Soon" list is more back and forth conversations, and unprompted interactions with Cortana. For instance, just using the functionality that she already has for text messages, you could do the following:

Cortana unprompted interactions (in a non-intrusive way):

If your notifications aren't silenced, on vibrate, or in quiet hours...

Cortana: "Hey, [name]? / Excuse me, [name] / etc."

• Cortana listens for "Yes?" "Yeah?" "What's up, Cortana?" etc.

(If she doesn't hear an affirmative response, conversation stops. This is the polite, "Are you available?" check to avoid bugging you when you're busy... similar to how a real assistant would check.)​

Cortana: "You know that thing you asked me to remind you about earlier? Don't forget to call your wife about XYZ tonight."
or "You'd asked me to track ABC subject for you. I found something interesting about it. Do you want to hear about it?"

• Cortana again goes into listening mode, looking for things like, "Yeah, read it" or the other similar prompts we get with text messages now.
• If "Yes." Cortana reads subject of news item, update on plane flight, etc.
• If "No." Cortana says "OK, it will be on my list for you when you check later."
• If "Right, call my wife please." Cortana starts the call, or performs other app functions depending on the context of the reminder.

I think that would really impress the jaded iOS and Android crowds voice assistant crowds, and do more to make her feel like a real assistant. You can use the same functionality we already have for text messages, just include a very short, polite "Are you available?" prompt in front of other reminders and things she's tracking for you (and allow the feature to be turned off, or limited to only prompting every X number of hours for news/subject updates).

Cheers,

--Vel

 

[Joe920]

Consider defining a phone number that when dialed tells the OS to open Cortana. That way I could tell my hands-free in the car to 'call Cortana' followed by a voice command, without having to pull my phone out of my pocket.

Edit: for clarity, this would be a placeholder/fake phone number defined in the OS, e.g. 1-800-555-HALO that would be recognized by WP as a command to engage Cortana listening mode without actually calling the number through a carrier.

 

[bbobeckyj]

Set reminders for the start/end of appointments. "When my next appointments starts/ends, turn on/off quiet hours"

 

[SpaceyO]

Set reminders for the start/end of appointments. "When my next appointments starts/ends, turn on/off quiet hours"

Cortana can already turn quiet hours on and off for calendar events that you're marked as "busy".

 

[The Skizzle]

Unfortunately, a lot of the things I'd like to see Cortana do have more to do with OS and app integration which may or may not take longer to see come to fruition, but I'll name a few:

1. Syncing of Reminders with Outlook - I imagine Microsoft could just change the Reminders "folder" as a new calendar on Outlook.com, or just add them to My Calendar by default, instead of separating them.
2. An option to change the default alarm. Not sure if this option would require retooling of the Alarms app or not.
3. More sports teams, ie NCAA teams. Much like I'm sure many euros don't care about American pro sports teams. In a state like Nebraska, where we have no pro teams, my main interest are the Huskers. I suppose this should be fairly easy to do.
4. Offline navigation support, and more offline functionality in general
5. System settings integration.

 

[pranaysonirip]

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