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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 -

by untog 11y ago

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 for a new laptop I would be strongly considering a Surface Book - I imagine Cortana on my phone would be a great addition if I had one.

_wmd 11y ago
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.
- sp332 11y ago
  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".
  - Spearchucker 11y ago
    Cortana does have a sense of humour. Try asking her what she's wearing. Her answer, while still funny, will not land you an HR violation.
BrianEatWorld 11y ago
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.
JamesBarney 11y ago
I recently switched from a Windows phone with Cortana to an Android phone. The only thing I miss from my old phone is Cortana. The voice recognition was better. Cortana never made me feel aware of how I was speaking or when I was pausing, but I am constantly aware that I am talking to a fallible machine with Ok Google.

by untog 11y ago

_wmd 11y ago

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.

sp332 11y ago
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".
- Spearchucker 11y ago
  Cortana does have a sense of humour. Try asking her what she's wearing. Her answer, while still funny, will not land you an HR violation.

BrianEatWorld 11y ago

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.

JamesBarney 11y ago

I recently switched from a Windows phone with Cortana to an Android phone. The only thing I miss from my old phone is Cortana. The voice recognition was better. Cortana never made me feel aware of how I was speaking or when I was pausing, but I am constantly aware that I am talking to a fallible machine with Ok Google.