Ask Ziggy version 2.0 now live on the Windows Phone Marketplace

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

We showed you the latest version of Ask Ziggy, the Siri-like app knowledge app, last week and we told you it'll be here soon. Sure enough, the app has now been updated in the Marketplace, bringing all that new re-designed goodness free to your phone.

As we remarked and showed in our video, Ask Ziggy v2.0 brings a new Metro look, geolocation localization to answer questions about whereabouts, weather, time and searches. It's also a bit smarter, allowing the developer to update certain features from the backend.

So how much attention is Ask Ziggy getting? A lot. Our first video has 166K views, Microsoft has taken an interest in it. And now we have word that that Nokia has personally invited Ask Ziggy to give a special demo of their voice recognition technology at its 3-domed “Nokia Lab” at the SXSW (South by Southwest) Festival on March 12th. What's more they've doubled their staff from one to two people, which is quite impressive when you think about what they're up against.

Grab Ask Ziggy in the Marketplace for free right here. Let us know in comments your thoughts. Thanks, zoljac, for the heads up

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

33 Comments
  • That update is pretty neat, very good work by the developer
  • This is nice technology, he deserves to get some recogognition from Nokia & MS for this.
  • Why Nokia? It honestly has nothing to do with them. Microsoft on the other hand should be speaking with him for future advancements.
  • With Nokia? What is Nokia going to do? Ask, "Are we ever going to bring anything other than a penny device to TMobile?"
  • It's a US, maybe UK app. Search for food results in I having to travel for 93 hours. Voice recognition is sketchy and have a hard time getting my words right. It crashes after 5-10 searches. All in all it's more useful if you live in the states but its starting to look like something good. If Nokia gets involved maybe we get some Scandinavian location recognised. In the mean time, if your as US citizen is traveling the world, expect hickups.
  • Not a bad effort at all. Good work guys =)
  • I dont wish to take anything away from the developer, but he is just using the nuance engine which is doing all the hard work.  All he is doing is parsing the results and displaying some information.
    Its Nuance that should get credit, but MS already have the technology to do what Nuance do so I dont see what is special here. 
  • Yeah, I used the old version for awhile, but found Tellme to be better and faster. Plus, Ask Ziggy wouldn't use WiFi which made it a fail for me. Might give 2.0 a shot, but probably not.
  • Great work and Congratulations for all the accolades... Askziggy's Shai Leib deserves it!! Great work!!  
  • The update much improved the app. I tried it a few months back and amended up deleting it. I decided to give it another try. I like it calling you by your name now.i did several searches with mixed results. I asked for weather in my area and it gave clear accurate results. I asked where I could get a passport in my area. It didn't give me specific places, only go to a post office or AAA. I asked for times to see the Lorax movie, and although it correctly repeated my question, it couldn't answer. The funniest response was to " Who won Super Tuesday?" first it thought I asked about a super PAY DAY,then it told me that Obama was winning more states but Hilary was getting candidates, so it was a draw. Republicans, you don't have a chance according to Ziggy.
  • Though I feel this is a valant effort I see some improvements that can and may be added in the future.
    1. Moving the talk/end talk button to the bottom is a major improvement, for me it would be nice to see the button act like the hold to talk like on VoiceTranslator or reconize when you finish speaking like Siri. 
    2. I would love to see it itergrated into the windows key inplace of or blended with Microsoft Tellme. 
    3. It would also be nice to pin the Ziggy talk button to the start screen if intergration with Microsoft Tellme isn't an option.
    See, short list.
    With the work this one guy has done alone, microsoft should be able to run with it and make it explode onto our handsets as our own true personal assistant. 
    That being said, I don't know where the patents come in so that could be an issue. All and all a great effort and good use of the nuance engine. 
  • It seemed to use Yahoo Answers far too much for the results... Which usually meant the answers were complete bollocks. It was annoying that when it misunderstood I would press cancel, an alert would come up, it would still give me a bogus answer, I would have to cancel again with yet another alert! It did have a few interesting responses, and generally understood me well... It still has a long way to go though
  • Amazing. Even if Naunce is the backend technology, it still is amazing how the dev did what he manage.
     
  • Very impressive, but it crashes on my Lumia 800. I'm not sure if its because I have location services turned off?
     
  • Off on the phone?  Could be.  Give it a test and if thats the case let the dev know about the bug.
  • I'm very happy for the developer! Congrats on all the big company attention!
  • Needs a lot more work.  Asked "What is the exchange rate for the Mexican Peso" and got "What is the exchange rate for the Mexican Pickle".  Asked "What is the symbol for Copper?" and got "I'm sorry, I didn't understand, please say again."  So tried "What is the table of elements symbol for Copper?" and got the same answer as the first try.  So I tried it a third time and still got the same answer.  Am a native English speaker so that's not the problem and I spoke slowly and succinctly but it still doesn't understand.  I'm wondering if I really do have the 2.0 version because when I was reading the privacy policy, it started off with "Last update 2/1/2012".
  • In the description in the Marketplace it should say version 2.0.0.0. The Mexican Pickle is a rare and highly valued currency! ;)
  • Tried "what is the atomic symbol for copper?" and got a nice run-down of the atomic symbol, weight, number, neutron ct... Could have been a little more descriptive of info provided, but returned more than I asked for (which I like)... I think it is a very nice update, and hope it keeps getting stronger... I like the direction, for sure...
  • Btw I was able to get it to understand 'what is the symbol for copper' by saying it like an American by over-pronouncing my r's. i.e. copperrrrr instead of like coppa. It's annoying that it automatically submits questions when the question was misinterpreted in the first place :/
  • Tell me where u at??
  • On WP Central, where are you at? :P
  • Like before, constructive feedback may find its way on to the next update.
  • Can you add play music, that be awesome. Doesn't recognize names on my contacts most of time.thanks
  • This is awesome. The developer may be using nuance, but he's the one getting Ziggy to do what we all like and want. Big thanks.
  • "Ask Ziggy, Remind me to send the developer a fresh baked pie to say thanks!"
  • Great update...way better than version 1...
  • Keeps exiting on my HTC Titan. The previous version didn't do this. I reinstalled with no improvement. Sorry, but the update is a Fail here. :-/
  • I get "" at 12am as an appointment on every day. Anyone else getting this?
  • Added a great new function to my Arrive.  Now, when I'm in the car and get a text message, teh voice activation kicks in and tells me who the message is from, allows me to hear the message and verbally respond.  Just that feature alone makes it worth while.
    Definitely the best program for the WP7.
  • I honestly dont get why this app is getting so much attention. No offence to the devs, but is it because it somewhat imitates siri? Tellme works way better and is native. Maybe I missed something? While I suppose some people might find the concept cool, it really isnt that great in practice IMO. And yes I did try it, it crashed the first time I tried it. Second time it worked on the first question and crashed on the second. Then crashed on the first one again. More power to anyone who enjoys it, lets see where it gets to.
  • I will have to give Ziggy a second try. Maybe PIN it to my home screen. I can see it working quite well for me when driving.
  • Nokia Lumia 900:
    Ask Ziggy has potential to be better than Siri. Only wish it could be switched to UK English rather than US English. It might understand more of my commands then :)