Microsoft has just announced Cortana for Windows Phone 8.1 at Build 2014. Cortana is the upcoming voice assistant that will compete against Siri and Google Now. We’ve heard rumors and seen leaks over the previous months, but now it’s all official. Cortana will be available soon to users on Windows Phone 8.1.
In the meantime, check out our hands on video of Cortana.
Cortana is definitely one of the bigger headline grabbing features in Windows Phone 8.1. The other being the new notification center.
Cortana is more than a voice assistant though. It’ll bring in the latest news for you and show the weather based on your personal preferences and location. Cortana will also do things like remind you of important dates or meetings.
We’re just getting acquainted with Cortana and we can’t wait to get to know her. How about you?
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Cortana announced for Windows Phone 8.1, we go hands on
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Actually i am using nokia lumia 520 windows phone but i am still wandering where to find 8.1 windows update. Is cortana support Lumia 520 phones?
Cortana is awesome!
Thanks for the good introductory video. Very helpful.
Just gave Cortana a whirl on my Lumia 620 after changing region/language to US etc. Looks promising and loved the speaking appointments from my calendar but asking "where is my wife" gave some rather naughty Bing suggestions!
Hope it lives up to the hype when i finally get it. It could put wp ahead of the game. Knowing Microsoft it probably wont, but just maybe... Ultimately though, only one thing matters. Can she tell if a cave is a natural formation?
Is that "THE" voice of Cortana that a certain game made famous or is it just coincidence that Microsoft based their new AI off the same name? Just curious :)
Will it be available in the Czech Republic? Does anybody know?
Cortana can be started by the search button, right ?
Will it be possible to configure the search button in such a way that it doesn't start Cortana all the time because I touch this bloody search button unintentionally ?
how i would be able to use cortana in india.. do i have to download updates using proxy
This is Microsoft's version of Google Now based on Bing rather than Google. Bing is usually a worse search engine so I am not holding my hopes up...
Google fag?
Cortana v Siri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iznLyIYzts&feature=youtu.be
really looking forward to cortana
I have a question about the release. I understand that Cortana will first be released as a beta in the US, but what is "in the US" based on? My Microsoft account was created in the US and remains "located" there, but I'm currently living in Spain and bought my Lumia 920 factory unlocked from France. So will this be based on the phone's origin, Microsoft account or location based on the cellular provider?
Any info or help would be appreciated! Thanks!!
Guys, please, when you have it on developers preview please ask her one question for me: "Cortana, when is your official release?"
I'm sad about Cortana because it will be available only in US - another regions will get Cortana without full features - like now in Windows Phone 8 you (in US) can use many voice command to operate your phone - I (in Poland) only 4... I cant even say (in Polish language) "note something" to note in OneNote because that command is not available in Polish language - I can't also dictate email or message - it's so unfair - why Google works very well in Polish language & WP8 not :/ With Cortana will be the same. Why Bing in WP8 in the US contain many features like music or picture recognizing ect. which we (in another regions) don't have - Unfair thats all
Is cortana available for all regions??!!
Excited as everyone is ...!!!! can't wait to talk to Cortana..!! By the way guys does Cortana help us to toggle Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS and Mobile Data using voice controls..?
Hopefully we see a lot of interesting and exciting Cortana commercials, even ones including the character herself. That is something that would add to the coolness factor. Next year they need to find a way to show off Cortana publicly like Satya did at BUILD
All the fuzz about Cortana makes me laugh !
It is only for the US.
What about the whole wide world outside the US ?
If it does not exist in local languages, let us at least use it in English. Most of us do speak/understand more than one language you know and English is one of them :-))
and YET AGAIN something that's only for those 'privileged' USA/EU users. Australia (Native English Language) will miss out again.. For how many years I wonder until Cortana arrives down under
I hope I can turn off all the back-talk. When I say something, just commence with the doing, without all of the "Ok, Lord Master King*, I'll remind you to tell your wife she's the queen the next time she calls." Just do it! *hey, what i have Cortana call me is my business!
This seems like a good idea UNTIL THE AI GOES RAMPANT!
I know. how many movies do we have to see before we realize that the phones are going to rise up and save the planet by killing all the humans. Think people. think!
Cortana + Xbox One: Just think about it!
You are driving, there are too much traffic and you won't get home in time. So, you turn on your Windows Phone and says "Cortana, in 10 minutes, start recording my tv program at Channel 5 on my Xbox One". So, the 'Cortana' will access your One Drive cloud, then access your Xbox One (that is on Sleep Mode but connected on the internet) and then start recording your favorite tv show at the time you asked for.
So, what do you think about it? :O
make it so. only you won't even have to say in 10 minutes, it knows when it's on. "record the next episode of..."
So Yeah, hopefully Cortana can give me some good driving hints inTitanfall, to make sure I get 'home' in time
So there is no way to access just Bing directly with the search button, it always goes to Cortana?
Not sure I want to always be greeted with this "fake personality interface"...
Looks awesome. Feeling excited for 8.1 now!
Will Cortana have an "always on mode" so that I can be across the room (within microphone distance) and just say (for example), "Cortana, what is the weather going to be like today?," and have it respond as opposed to me needing to it the search or microphone in order to bring her up?
WP+US != WP-US....
Cortana is another exmple of fetures like local scout of fetures MS does not share with the rest of us.
http://m.timesofindia.com/tech/tech-news/Windows-Phone-8-1s-Cortana-not-...
Not for India...not even for developers, in beta mode..??
Fascinating! She(Cortana) is way better than my assistant!
Great integration and UX...good job MS!
but what about OTG feature.....is it included or not?...plz tell me guyzz...
But where have the code reader and OCR capabilities gone?!
OCR is now part of camera apps (office lens) so I guess barcode scanning will be moved as well...
Let's hope so, because I wouldn't want to miss the (occasionally) ease of use with the code scanner.
has Microsoft said anything about human interface device support on windows phone 8.1
that will be really good
Looks good, but from video, you still need a lot of key press interaction. I'm looking toward to trying just to see if it understand non-usa words ;), downside is probably it will rape the battery.
Why only for US now? We all want to check it out now...... :-|
Well because there's still a bunch of localization work to do I guess...
I think that Cortana and other features that 8.1 offers will live up to it's hype. This may be a start of something new and I'm sure upcoming updates following that will only better these features. I like how it's so intuitive for the do not disturb calls that it sees a pattern when a number is calling more than once within 3-5 minutes to make you realize it's an emergency call. And the swipe feature, something iPhone still lacks after all their device upgrade.
Nice cortana, but i don't like the user interface. Very ugly. It looks like its a part of the setting menu. They should have find a way to use a better background or use bing image then put all those info. Black background and white text with colored highlights is becoming boring.
I do not agree...images and graphics without purposes are just a meaningless distractions. Eye-candy do not improve usability by any means...especially on mobile devices which people normally use in variable situations, while walking the streets, sitting in a cafe..you know it is not a desktop experience...normally we use these devices while we are actually doing something else. So what is nice and pleasent for the eye may be subjective..but what is useful and functional remains the ability to access information quickly and clearly. From this point of view WP8 has always been on track...plus Cortana, given the nature of the service, is just a hub...to bring/push other apps or data, it doesn't need to be fancy in my opinion since is just the bridge between the OS and external contents or apps.
U can be functional and at the same time pleasant to the eye. And that what all users across any platform deserves. No body would say oh please give us all the functionality and we just don't damn care how it looks. U cant excuse its functionality from it looking ugly. That's two different aspects. If they become a conflict to each other then a balance should be sought. No balance in that design.
Looks awesome for v.1.
We can expect it will only grow in features (and reliability), especially once 3rd party developers start using Cortana APIs in their apps' updates.
I just hope 8.1 update will come to Lumia 920 soon. I'm a bit afraid their focus will be on new phones - I know it makes sense, bur reason is rarely stronger than "I don't care, I want it NOW!" emotion :)
I was waiting for them to say only newer models will get.
Wow, I wantz now!!!!!!!!!
Hmm, only marginally better than siri as is. A great and much needed addition to WP, but not exactly going to blow the socks off iOS users, I think.
I did notice that Microsoft is continuing the trend of not knowing what "hands free" actually means. I look forward to continued sub par Bluetooth experiences.
I cant wait to put my windows phone next to an iPhone and try to get siri and cortana to talk to each other... isn't that the true purpose of all of this?
I agree, and google version as well have 3 chatting
Can't wait to try it. I just wish it was always listening instead of having to press the microphone button everytime I want to ask something. Hopefully in a future update.
It looks good but disappointed with the animation reminds me of Hal just alil to much, i know that's superficial but i was really hoping Ms would of given user the option of using our xbox avatar because right now the avatar doesn't do much.
they should have used scarlet johanson's voice. can we make conversations with cortana instead of just asking her to do. not as futuristic as Her but somewhat
One big question: So when the heck will this 8.1 preview be out for people who are in the dev preview program on their phones? I cant wait to give this cool tech a try!
cortana love you. come quickly
Awesome! Jobs must be rolling over in his grave.
IS THERE ANY WAY TO ACTIVATE CORTANA WITHOUT ANY TOUCH FROM STAND BY MODE????
Hmm, so it looks like it could be used to some extent without actively talking to your phone? If that's the case, Cortana might actually be useful to me unlike Siri, which I've used approximately twice a year on my iPhone.
Is Xbox music integration baked in? Can we say, Play Album, Play Song, etc? I have the Hey DJ app (or whatever it's called now), but I'd like to be able to play any song, any time with voice command.
Will ALL features be available world wide???
Good question, it's apparently US only for now according to Joe Belfiore but it will roll out to other countries. I would imagine that with WP8.1 being available worldwide all users will have Cortana but voice functions may not be available to start with.
I think that's a safe assumption considering most of the things related to Cortana are on backend servers.
My guess would be that seeing as it replaces Bing on the search button, everyone will have cortana but without the voice interactions in certain countries.
Then, when the servers are updated with the appropriate voice data for each region/country, the voice functions will become available.
... Not Jen Taylor...
I'm unimpressed with them going with the voice from calling my voicemail. I suppose that could have been forgiven if cortana actually looked like cortana instead of a rotating circle.
I'm totally going to talk to her about Master Chief!
That crack about Siri being upset was pretty funny. I'm looking forward to this feature. Unfortunately I am still tempted to wait for AT&T to release 8.1 OTA, but we will see if I can hold to that decision. I prefer to have the firmware update at the same time as the OS update.
I have the same question that some other people have, how is Cortana updated? Will updates need to wait on OS updates, or is it a separate app. I assume it is too deeply intergrated in the OS to be a separate app, but we shall see.
My son is a die hard Apple phone fan and user he saw this and and as a die hard Halo fan he now wants a windows phone so there is that :)
Not a fan of the blue circle. I kinda think Cortana looks more like the Monitor as a circle. That would be cool...using the Monitors voice for the male setting and Cortana's voice for the female setting.
Looks good. Uk here hope it understands us , because siri is shit
I have never had issues with siri understanding me, android version is better, and windows version fails on a lot of words. We can hope this new app works better.
Why dont release it in The 10 major countries at The Same time...FAIL..
EPIC FAIL
Always US first... Its been a long history though
As far as i know it'll be available as a beta version in the US first and later in China and the UK. The rest of the world will have to wait forever I fear. Maybe too long.
And all this 2,5 years after Siri. Well done, Microsoft.
Same old from MS.
Looks good, seems like a feature I will use, I hope they upgraded how it hears you. I use the voice texting in WIndows Phone all the time and overall, if it's quiet (driving or not in a croud) it works almost perfect but, around a group of loud people, it's questionable (infact listing to talk radio show, it copied everything they said for like 5 seconds).
The real test is when it comes here, will it be as great as it looks, or will it be a flop.
If you used iOS's version, it's something that you used when you first got the phone but, after the novlity of it wore off, it's a feature most iPhone users never really use any more (I know a lot of people with iPhones and I can tell you from first hand)...
Cant wait to play with it on my own....
I can't wait either. but maybe it's me, but I can talk to my phone with perfectly in my old road noisey minivan... now around my loud mouth sisters, not so much. perhaps we need a background noise filter, only lets call it the loud mouth sisters checkbox.
Love it! The voice will eventually be all Jen Taylor's voice in due time.
OMG I CAN'T WAIT SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY
Dude its FREE. But have to wait.....
If the "at a glance" view isn't intelligent like Google Now cards it's worthless IMHO. The value in Google Now is that it throws cards of information at you without you having to "opt in". It's just auto-magical. If Cortana requires explicit "opt-in" that defeats the purpose. You can moan on about PRIVACY... but the market has spoken. People prefer convenience over privacy. They don't mind Google mining their emails, search history to present USEFUL information. Cortana better do that as well.
Can't wait to try her out!! Hope she surpasses Siri and Google in terms of awesomeness!!
Does it have recognition for English (India)?
Does it give Local results in India?
If not then FAIL..!!!
I may have had unrealistic expectations, but I expected more. I don't like that you have to press 2 keys to make it listen. It defeats the purpose for keeping your eyes on the road.
I ain't got to touch shit on my Moto X. It Doesn't Even need to be on. But I live 200 years in the future.
Agreed saying "Ok Google" is revolutionary in terms of activating the assistant. That Cortana requires multiple presses is a huge fail.
It's still 1 key press. Holding down search launches straight into speech.
Keyword is "Still"
This is new tech. I dont want "still"
Not having to touch the phone for interaction is a huge part of a voice assittant.
In the car, in the bathtub, phone charging on the dresser or nightstand. You should be able to have Cortana do things without stabbing at the phone. It's perplexing that this feature is missing. Do they not have the right pattent for it?
Reading to us would be great for commuting.
nice feature, but talking to your phone is weird, I can´t get used to it.
If I can carry on a conversation with my 2 year old, I can carry on a conversation with anything.
as now cortana will be for USA, then my question is still can we get fetaure like quiet hours,etc. for other regions??
I was going to ask the same question also.
The Cortana voice sounds too human :(
Man my first question will be "How's the weather in New Delhi....... in Kelvin?"
Is Cortana going to be able to be updated independent of a larger OS update? My guess is no. Too bad... looks very half baked.
I was hoping Cortana's voice would have more of a personality, like the program from Halo. Otherwise it seems pretty nice, I might be a little underwhelmed until I get to use it myself.
It's tough to make it exactly the same, you can pre-record certain phrases or sentences that you anticipate will be often used, but other than that its a string of pre-recorded words, so it won't be the same as Cortana in a video game which was just reading continuously from the script
You're correct, and you make sense. I suppose I felt the speech would have a little more personality, featured here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nX9P6skzZNU#t=65
They wouldn't have to pre-record phrases but rather every sound in the english language, which isn't too bad.
Daniel, what phone are you using? I read "Nokia Proto"... I don;t recognize that shape/size
That's the 630.
I'm not sure it was worth the wait, but better than nothing it is.
that's what your mother said after giving birth to you...BOOYAAAA
oh, internet insult. that's the best you got apparently.
That was just a joke, but in all seriousness, I'm not sure how you can dismiss a feature you had zero time using. Cheer up nancy
When will it come to other counties? India as an example?
So now voice commands can only be activated by two taps? I liked simply holding down the start button...
I know! This is perplexing, I thought it would have been on par with "OK Google Now" so I didnt have to press any buttons...
actually it's "OK Google" which can be disabled but it's ON by default if you've got Android 4.4.
Holding the search button takes you directly to the speech input, so it's still one tap.
Oh phew, awesome!
He didn't point it out on stage, but you could see him hold down the search button to directly bring voice up. That was also shown in one of the leaks.
Color me very very very unimpressed. I'm hoping this is the alpha before the beta.
Yeah, the demo apparently was very rough, and didn't really work correctly. It's still in beta though, so there's that, but considering how long Microsoft reportedly has had this in the works, you'd think it would be more polished.
For a company of its size, Microsoft seems to be giving Windows Phone and mobile the least amount of mapower.
How will they update Cortana? Do we have to wait for WP8.2, WP9? It doesn't look like it can be updated quickly like Xbox Music (which NEEDS to be updated, immensely)...
Too bad they didn't wait to get it right the first time...
If you watched //build/ (I watched the whole Windows Phone and Windows part), It's all server based. The bugs that you see are the results from the servers. They are updaing the servers so you wont need to roll out a new update to the phones, it will be updated on the server.
Sorry - just watched it. But now that I watched it, while impressed, its pretty embarassing how many times it didn't understand or do what Joe wanted it to do... nice demo guys... can't even ensure that it works with his already prepared speech... sigh...
I too wish it would have been smoother. at the same time, when I consider how easily they could have faked the whole thing and made it fly 100% perfectly with prerecorded responses and stuff, I gained some appreciation for the honesty of it.
Yeah I did appreciate that, definitely refreshing. I didn't count but I think it was around 5 or 6 instances where he tried something and it didn't work and when he re-tried it only worked once out of several times.
At least it is updated on the backend. I expect it to continually improve (err I HOPE) - the live demonstration was much better than the video posted above!
Really nice..
Is that jen taylors voice km the video??????
I'm impress!
Pretty disappointed with the voice. Definitely sounds the most robotic out of the three.
They use Jen Taylors voice in some elements.
Did touchless voice make it in? Voice interaction is somewhat pointless if I still have to jab at the button to have it listen...
Agreed... they really dropped the ball on this one. The Nexus 5 is magical because all you have to do is say "Ok google" to activate the Google Now.
With Kinect in my living room waiting for me to say xbox on, you'd think it be so in the works.
AAAAAAaaaaAaAaaaaAAAAA!!!!!!
This is awesome!!!!!
So intelligent :)
I'd be much more excited about Cortana if her voice wasn't so awful). It doesn't help that Siri's voice changed from a robotic woman to a robotic dude (who sounds even worse than the robotic woman) when it was brought over to the UK. Text to speech voices are hard to do well, and even then they cost a pretty penny to license. Still, I would be happy to pay a little extra to listen to a voice that doesn't sound like a cheese grater being applied to my eardrum...
It wasn't that bad. In some instances it's Jen taylors voice.
LOL @ the cheese grater joke
Ridiculous that it will only be out for US first. Microsoft fucking over its customers again
Will all these features be available in all countries???especially India :P music id is not available on bing outside USA,so m just curious if all these will be available or not :-\ I hope so though :|
Will India get cortana? Anyone plz say
It will be .but not sure of all the features :P as always :D
Eventually, Looking at other OS like iOS I think it will be staggered release to work out the bugs and optimize each language. I don't think you would like a release that does not work.
No, By 2015 or 2016, we may see a beta version, and that's me being optimistic.
Yes, but the voice will be Kareena Kapoor. :D
Only one problem, I'm on Windows phone 8.
This is all I have to say:
SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
they will take our money and keep the good features for them selves...
probably US only and where is Bing search?
i want on my lumia 1520,now,please?pretty please?
Lol, same here. Not now, but RIGHT now!
So was the voice sampled from Jen Taylor or not?
I think it is Jen Taylor. From what it sounds like to me, they had her record a bunch of words and phrases and sentences. They then basically insert words depending on the answer. Sometimes its a copy paste type deal and sometimes its a full sentence.
If that made any sense lol.
In some cases it's Jen Taylor and sometimes its a generic voice. My guess is is that it's not done yet.
US only??
Looks like it.
of course, its not like windows phones have a bigger market share in europe or anything. oh wait
It's not like Microsoft is a company based in the US. Oh wait
With paying customers all over the world ...
off course, after all the fastest growing WP markets are non US which makes perfect sense to screw them over in typical MSFT way.
I see that Cortana can be turned on or off....can it be removed altogether? I have no need for something like that and would prefer saving drive space for tools I will use and do want.
There's always one in the group. :)
I like to call them Debbie Downers
And I have a term for people like you that don't respect opinions of others too...but this is a family site.
Debbie...shhh.
Not being negative....just isn't a feature I want so if it is removable that would be great. If not I'll just turn it off.
OS features aren't usually removable, and removing it won't save you any space, it's just code
for reals? that sounds cool...
+cortana
I'm guessing no. It's built-in just as text messaging and calendar are, and you can't remove those. O doubt the space would be significant anyway.
It's my guess too....but doesn't hurt to ask. Less of an issue on the 1520 since memory is expandable, but the 1020 is a different story.
This feature won't take any memory or storage when it's disabled, it's just some code that's part of the OS.
When enabled it saves some data locally, but that's nowhere near the stoage used by music, pictures or most games, so it's irrelevant anyway
Thans for the info. Didn't think it could be removed by i was hoping. Oh well, I'll just turn it off.
Is it US only then? Or English speaking countries only?
It's probably going to start as English only first, and update from there over the next few years. The update schedule is pretty much up to Microsoft's internal development schedule and manpower hours. Probably won't include Spanish, French etc until WP9 or whatever it'll be called.
The markets will be limited too probably, US, UK initially I suspect.
belfiore mentioned in the keynote that UK won't get it right away
Seems pretty stupid that its not avaliable in other english countries right away. It would be nice to have a localised UK version but until then I would still be happy using the US version.
Being an indian, I would be elated if i get to use cortana with English (US) Without changing my region to US.
That is all i want MS, Please do not take this away from us.
US and UK first with China up next.
i'm wondering if they are just releasing the english version in china. if so, it won't be too meaningful except for being cool, given that the english level of the most part of china isn't good enough. but a chinese system is like a-whole-nother project. well, i think siri in china is also in english though.
They said US and UK first, then China, then other countries.
uouououoouoo!!! SUPER DUPER EXCITED
Is it just me, or does it go from sounding like a generic voice to sounding like voice actress Jen Taylor..
In the search results it's Jen Taylor. And in the Cortana UI it is another voice.
As MS stated it is a Beta app until later in 2014. I certainly hope that when it comes out of Beta, Jen's voice will be used. I'm hoping for that anyhow! X-D
it's a mix of both, some things are pre-recorded by Jen, some are using a TTS voice that's very similar to her
I hope they do this soon, actually.
All i really care about is if it actually sounds like cortana from halo. That way I can be like "cortana" and she will reply "Yes Chief?"
They used the same voice actress for some pre-recorded things and a very similar voice for the TTS stuff (if you set you nick name to be Master Chief you'll get a lot of the pre-recorded answers)
So is it the same voice? It's hard to tell from the video.
Yes, it's the same voice as in WP8, however, you can configure the voice either to a female or male voice setting.
Will Cortana get introduced to the surface and tablets? I am going to install a surface 2LTE in my vehicle and cortana will be awesome!
Can we get a 'yes!' to this?
It will eventually, no idea where though.
It think and feel Microsoft won't delay getting this signature app to the masses. People with newer devices like the 1520 (me) shouldn't have to wait long or at least that's what I have read. Hopefully that's correct.
Itll be US only f1rst :/
1520+ NICE :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Great job having this ready for when the embargo was up! I'm so happy they kept the name and didn't go with "Bing Personal Assistant for Windows Phone".
I don't know, I think it'd be hilarious watching the internet sh*t itself knowing we'd have to say "B-PAWP, text my wife".
"B-PAWP, call Dominoe's"
"B-PAWP, where can I buy an iphone?"
Then people would photoshop fake album covers with saying "B-POP" Tiger Beat style, it would be a whole thing.
/actually glad Microsoft was sensible for once and kept what people wanted
Haha, that would brilliant lol
*weeping* I can't with all this, I need Windows 8.1 and I want it now #SoDarnBeautiful #SlayYourFaves
Stay cool, brother.
#keepingitreal
Oook, breath in, breath out...... Eeeaassy Now. You'll get it.
Yipeeeee!!!
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