Voice navigation in Maps

[Scott Leonard]

I was expecting to hear Cortana do the voice navigation but found that there is no voice nav at all. None. When you click "start voice nav" you get a message saying that you need to install an app for that and do you want to search for one in the store? If you click yes the store opens up with a bunch of 3rd party map apps few of which have voice and none are Bing Maps with Cortana's voice nav. WTF?

 

[vineet_vpns12]

In my handset it takes me to the in-built voices download menu.
From where I can download different language as per my requirements.
Which handset you're using? :-o

 

[pursuit2550]

I had the same issue on the VZW M8. I had to download Here Maps and Here Drive to have voice directions. Its almost 2015, you would think they would have a map service that was worth a dam.

 

[osumorris2315]

Here maps and here drive work seamlessly with Cortana.

 

[Scott Leonard]

I have the HTC One for Windows from TMo.

I did some further research and found that MS removed the pretty good turn-by-turn voice navigation for Bing Maps that was in WP7.x when they came out with WP8. IMHO it is an epic fail. The only thing they needed to do was replace the generic computer voice with Cortana and her A.I. and make the turn-by turn voice directions automatic instead of making you tap the screen. This also means that this thread belongs in WP8.1 forum not the HTC One (M8) for Windows forum. Sorry.

I installed Here Drive+ and spent the day using it. It definitely does not work with Cortana. Cortana will open Here Drive+ if you ask her specifically but that's about it. Here uses some generic computer generated voice. It sound like the voice from WP phone 7.x. Other than that it's not bad and displays some useful info at the bottom of screen that Bing Maps doesn't but I prefer the look and feel of Bing Maps and would MUCH rather have Cortana doing the turn-by-turn navigation. The only voice I hear coming from my phone should be Cortana otherwise the phone experience feels schizophrenic. (And that goes for other apps besides maps as well)

For example:
Someone text you an address. WP is smart enough to highlight the address and make it clickable but clicking on it opens Bing Maps not your 3rd party map app. Same behavior if you click an address in your contacts or an email or even if you ask Cortana for directions. Always opens Bing Maps then makes you click directions, then maps the route in Bing Maps, and then, finally, has a button to start voice navigation. That button will open your 3rd part maps. Cludgy, cludgy, cludgy.

 

[captblaze]

Try going to settings/applications/maps, then scroll to bottom and choose here maps + as default. It may already be the default, but it doesn't hurt to check

 

[waazzupppp]

Yep, just go Settings > Applications > Maps > scroll to bottom and choose Here Drive + as your default. You will see that Windows Phone maps (no voice) is the default.

 

[Scott Leonard]

It is already set to default.

Also, if you go to Settings > Applications > Cortana > Speech you find the settings for the Text to Speech voice that is used for turn-by-turn directions and 3rd party apps (this includes reading text messages to your BT device). The two choices are Male and Female. I think there should be a 3rd choice, Cortana Actually I think this should just be Cortana. Maybe when WP10 comes out.

To be completely fair I'll report that today I long-pressed the Search button and said "Cortana take me home". She said she was getting directions to (my address) and opened Here Drive+ without first opening Bing Maps. (But of course the voice from then on was the aforementioned text-to-speech voice).

 

[captblaze]

I understand what you want now... you want Jen Taylor's (cortana) voice to talk you through navigation. I don't think that is possible, because she is in the cloud. Microsoft does all the improvements to cortana on the backend and not through direct download. if you notice, there are times when cortana gets stumped when she cant get hold of her cloud based database

although I wouldn't mind hearing her instead of the robotic sounding voice nav chick

 

[nohra]

Here maps and here drive work seamlessly with Cortana.

Here Drive works with Cortana, but I haven't found a way to get Here Maps to work with it. How do you get Cortana to work with Here Maps instead of the [Bing] Maps app??