Aria, voice-based personal assistant for Windows Phone, available free in India for one day

By Abhishek Baxi
last updated

Aria, the Siri-like personal assistant for Windows Phone, is free for a day on Windows Phone Store in India. 

The app is different from other similar apps for Windows Phone since it uses the native Windows Phone Speech Recognition for commands instead of processing on online servers. This way the app doesn’t hit your mobile data usage much and also tends to works faster. Also, apart from the obvious US and UK English language support, the app works well for Indian accent as well.

As yet though, the app offers limited functionality and misses out on some common email and calendar scenarios. However, the app allows you to call a contact by name or look up the contact’s email address, translate English to other languages, lookup weather, open common settings, and say random things to you if you are in mood for a conversation. 

You can download the Windows Phone 8 app from here free till 7:30 PM IST (2:00 PM GMT) tomorrow. The app goes for $0.99 usually.

Which is your favorite personal assistant app for Windows Phone? Tell us in the comments!

Via: WPXBOX

Abhishek Baxi
Abhishek Baxi
56 Comments
  • Why only in India? Nothing good ever happens for us in the US (;
  • Change region to India, install for free, change region back. Worked for me in the UK!
  • Isn't it $0,99?
  • Lol did you even read the headline?
  • I got misguided by the headline, it seam to me that they were trying out the app in India...not that it was just free in India! Douh lol
  • Same thing here. It got me wondering about Cortana lol
  • Nothing good in US? What about the free both 1520 and 2520 only in US?
  • *whoosh*
  • Agree
  • In India only? Strange......anyways glad to be one of the beta testers for this app, has great potential
  • I didnt have to change the region!I went straight from the download app in the wpcentral app,and is working fine,ps im in the UK
  • What about Cortana?
  • Cortana?
  • Yeah. Wasn't it going to be our voice assistant when WP 8.1 becomes available?
  • How is that related to the sale of an app? Take it to the forums.
  • Oh sorry, guys. I read the title wrong. I thought this was like a prototype or something... Even though I read the whole article... How stupid!
  • I think this is just an app from a developer, not from Microsoft?
  • Wow, it worked in my app store! And I'm from Brazil.
  • Wow application works perfectly in my lumia 820 india thanks for free amazing experience... Very nice and really so wonderful
  • Turn off location services too that might help. Location off, region India, restarted my phone and it worked for me :)
  • It is not too accurate. Also when i asked it to check the weather, it gave me a response without mentioning the numbers - "the weather is degree celsius". WTF?
  • I laughed harder than I should've
  • I downloaded app, but it is not working fine as, problem in translate, open contacts etc. Anyone has problem or its just me or may be due to 512MB RAM as I am using Lumia 720  
  • Its just the app.. its not fully functional.. the device's RAM has nothing to do with the problem you are facing.. :)
  • so you are also facing some problem??
  • It uses bing search when i asked weather .......
  • You have to say "Aria" before using any command or it doesn't pick it up. Try reading the help inside the main app.
  • Doesn't seem as fully polished as members suggested in the forum. It is buggy with a MASSIVE vibration when she replies back! Also you can't turn that annoying vibration off. My name won't be updated at all. No matter what I call myself.
  • Ever voice asst app on WP really suck compared to the functions and featues on Siri and Google. W8 is far too behind and to bloody slow in updating and catching up with features. Just experenced Nexus 5 and it out does every Windows phone for almost half the price of top-end W8P's.
  • Installed but not working in my L620(India). Getting error message.
  • Same for me
  • This bug has been fixed in the latest version. Please update the app. The reason this happened is that you need to install speech on your phone (I assumed it was installed by default, but on some phones this isn't the case) Go to Settings -> Speech then install either English - UK, English US, or English - India
  • Not working on my 520..showing launch error ,specific file not found..somebody help
  • This bug has been fixed in the latest version. Please update the app. The reason this happened is that you need to install speech on your phone (I assumed it was installed by default, but on some phones this isn't the case) Go to Settings -> Speech then install either English - UK, English US, or English India
  • Good job Abhishek.....
  • Hey guys u need to download speech 1st then only it will work and ya one thing so funny ARIA ,TALK DIRTY TO LOL
  • Found it useful, I wanted an app that could tell me the time, especially when I am riding the Bike I dont want to pull the phone out. I was almost on the verge of writing an app for the same but thanks to this app I get Time which I always wanted. For calling by Name, I find the Native App is pretty Nice.
  • Companion cube! Long time no see!
  • It's always there for you, unless GlaDOS incinerates your phone ;)
  • Right now most feature packed one is still indigo, although Aria works nicely without having to launch app. Hope it will keep growing!
  • You might need to focus on your copyediting skills, Mr.Baxi :)
  • It's always work in progress. Point out when there's a mistake. :-)
  • Flat garbage. Its at best, alpha code.
  • Hi Jazmac, Would be more helpful if you could tell me specifically what your problem is.
  • L820 user from IND
    App works perfectly fine...
  • Can anyone who has used this app and Indigo make a quick comparison for me?
  • Why is it not available in Pakistan??anyway happy to see these kind of apps coming in windows store
  • Now available in Pakistan just for you :)
  • FYA-- I was never classified as the spelling police but please update your title with "assistant".  Currently it reads "assitant".
  • Bad mistake. Corrected. Thanks.
  • Aria has such an Indian accent. Lol. Don't get me wrong, I'm indian too. Ha.
  • mine failed to launch, the system cannot find the file specified ( exception from hresult: 0x80070002) any idea whats the problem :D
  • Hi untitled007, This bug has been fixed in the latest version. Please update the app. The reason this happened is that you need to install speech on your phone (I assumed it was installed by default, but on some phones this isn't the case) Go to Settings -> Speech then install either English - UK, English US, or English India
  • Installed and works on Lumia 521. Until WP 8.1 comes out, this should do. We will see...
  • Aria is a fine app with lots of potential! But I would like to mention another, very similar app, called Voice Butler. It has more features than Aria and is free :) http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/voice-butler/3987b873-f6f0-4bd3-9ee3-837571dbe23a And yes, I am the dev of Voice Butler ;)
  • Didn't Apple buy Aria? Or is that some other voice assistant, I've read sth like that.