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Cortana available on iOS and Android

blogs.windows.com

61–70 of 144 posts

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#61
post #9

do Siri, OK Google or Cortana offer any API's for 3rd party apps? So that I could do things like get X app to do Y with voice commands? Either when I've got the app open/focused, or even when the app isn't running?

Of course Google now has an api that can be used for issuing voice commands for third party apps

Of course? How do I use it, because I have used a third party app for this for a while.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#63
post #27

Can anyone that has used Cortana say how it compares to Google Now? The Google Play preview screenshots show a lot of great stuff - flight tracking and so on - that Google Now already has. I'm not wedded to Google by any means (in fact, I like the idea of diversifying the services I use) but I'm not seeing huge pluses to Cortana yet. Irrespective, Microsoft has really been impressive lately. If I were in the market f…

I used it for a solid year when it first came out and have recently switched to Android, so that I can use Project Fi.

I found the systems to be pretty comparable. Google Now still creeps me out a bit because it assumes I want it to do many things without asking. This may be a product of me not customizing the options, but the fact that it has pinged me while I was sleeping to tell me I was late for a flight in a different country that a family member was taking was irritating. I didn't have that kind of issue with Cortana because it seemed to only do what I directly requested of it.

The voice recognition and speed seemed a little better than Google and Siri at the time too. During lunch, we frequently had faceoffs between digital assistants and Cortana won more than its share. It also seemed to be better at not just showing search results for a question, but actually answering it like a human would. I've even found that it's song recognition works faster than Shazaam, although it has a higher rate of returning no results.

From my experience, unless you are in the MS ecosystem, there is probably little reason to switch from your native assistant. The one exception being, if you find the data policies or certain features to be too intrusive in your current assistant.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#66

I want to like Cortana, I really do. Unfortunately, it's linked to my phone's default language. So even though I could speak English, Cortana will not talk to me because my phone's interface is in Spanish. That is something I can understand - maybe there are development reasons why second language voice recognition is not possible. However, every time I update my OS, Cortana is added to my main screen again, perhaps…

Google navigation is the best example of this. Because of aesthetics I keep my phone in English even though I live in a Spanish speaking country. It's ok for Navigation to assume my language to be English but they should offer the option of changing it. The English voice completely mangles the Spanish street names and makes directions difficult to follow at times. It really isn't difficult for Google to just offer the option of changing the language.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#67
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case, is there a clear benefit to Cortana over Google Now?

If you are a windows 10 user and use cortana on desktop, and xbox one user which is likely to get cortana, you will have one personal assistant across all your devices. Is it a clear benefit, it entirely depends on your use case. As Windows 10 notebook owner, even though I mostly use Cortana on my phone, she/it has enough context when I use her on my notebook.

Problem is Microsoft will likely abandon Cortana before very long, like they've done with SO many of their products.

Plays4Sure, the original Surface, Silverlight, I could go on. MS has no stomach for long-term commitment to their non-core products, and as such I'm always counting down the days till their latest innovation/copyvation gets the ax.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#69
post #37
post #27

Can anyone that has used Cortana say how it compares to Google Now? The Google Play preview screenshots show a lot of great stuff - flight tracking and so on - that Google Now already has. I'm not wedded to Google by any means (in fact, I like the idea of diversifying the services I use) but I'm not seeing huge pluses to Cortana yet. Irrespective, Microsoft has really been impressive lately. If I were in the market f…

I've owned a Windows Phone for a year, only got around to trying Cortana on Sunday evening entirely by accident. It worked flawlessly for adding 2 calendar entries, at which point I was impressed enough to try and engage it in conversation, which (thankfully) failed. All the more impressive as I was a case of beer in, slurring my words, and speaking in a thick local accent that would confuse any Englishman. Definitel…

It does have a huge collection of bad jokes, which is a draw to silly people like me! You can even ask it for categories like "tell me a science joke".

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#70

I want to like Cortana, I really do. Unfortunately, it's linked to my phone's default language. So even though I could speak English, Cortana will not talk to me because my phone's interface is in Spanish. That is something I can understand - maybe there are development reasons why second language voice recognition is not possible. However, every time I update my OS, Cortana is added to my main screen again, perhaps…

Polyglots need not apply.
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