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Cortana available on iOS and Android

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#31

Post by crazysaem »

reitanqild wrote: post #20
probably_wrong wrote: post #10

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…

On PC it refuses even if my user interface is English.

For me it was the same, but the cause was that the region was set to Germany. So language English, region Germany. After I set the region to the US, I was able to turn on Cortana. //Edit: The reason is probably because of what Maarten88 said.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#35

Post by dave5104 »

danpeddle wrote: post #25
probably_wrong wrote: post #10

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…

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

I don't think there's a problem with automagically inferring the language. It sounds like the problem lies in not being able to override that decision.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#36

Post by Domenic_S »

danpeddle wrote: post #25
probably_wrong wrote: post #10

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…

Sigh, that's sad. It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking. Google play is a prime culprit, for example, showing a mixture of language content on the play store. See also subtitles, dubbed content, books.. Another one - Sony's Playstation store, where if you choose a country, then the lang…

> It baffles me that there are still so many services that try to 'automagically' intuit which language someone wants to have a service in, instead of just simply .. asking.

My experience is that language/locale implementation for a big project is so complex that PMs like to handwave the language selection part away. On a recent project I had to go back and ask, "What if an english-speaking user is traveling in Germany, do we show them the German-language site? What if a German-speaking user is traveling to France, do we show them English (since we didn't have an FR localization)?"

Confounding the issue is that many implementations combine locale with language, which can be a problem if you have locale-exclusive features. As a made-up example, maybe Cortana's contract for stock data specifies it can only be used in the US, and you're a US-based Spanish speaker. But Cortana assumes Spanish == Mexico, so if you use Spanish now stock quotes don't work. It's really attractive to just call those problems edge cases to be worked out in the next release.

(I think Etsy handles this really well, you can specify ship-to location, interface language, and currency separately. Although for some reason they auto-detected me, in the Bay Area, as UK, EN-GB, CAD which was strange. Obviously some work to be done.)

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#37

Post by _wmd »

untog wrote: 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.

Definitely a convenient feature, though I don't know if it has all the knowledge search stuff Siri has, or any of the random pointless gimmicks that iPhone users seem to mainly coo over.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#39

Post by garyrichardson »

reggplant wrote: post #4
geoffpado wrote: post #3

Since I couldn't find the iOS link anywhere (even on their main Cortana page), here it is for everyone else: https://appsto.re/us/hTM2-.i

It is currently only available in the US and China as far as I can see (UK here).

Also not available in Canada. Boo-urns.

Re: Cortana available on iOS and Android

#40

Post by sremani »

falcolas wrote: post #29
jinst8gmi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having to buy an Apple device which is unaffordable for many...

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.
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