Cortana

I have all but eliminated Siri from my iPhone without jail breaking it! For those that can’t get Cortana just dl MS LAUNCHER(it’s integrated with Cortana). Voice to text for messaging works well but I would like to see voice to text with Cortana not require a physical touch of the send button. Other than that I have Siri so far in the background I only need her to launch Cortana (which would be nice to eliminate Siri all together). I would prefer my windows phone back (hint to MS, to step up their phone game and want to compete in the app race.) windows phone is so much better than what is out there today, but it lacks the apps and therefore appeal to users. I only have an iPhone because of my employer and we are a windows based company(go figure).. one day I hope to use my winphone again but until then ms for iPhone is the next best thing.

Brother-in-law bought us a cortana speaker a year and a half ago and set it up with his own microsoft account for whatever reason. I had previously downloaded this app (over a year ago) and tried to log in with my existing microsoft account. It did not let me log in, I tried everything, but ended up deleting the app. I just redownloaded to give it another shot only to find the microsoft account I had previously tried to use was already signed in once the app installed. However, I have been trying to switch to a different microsoft account, and the app will not let me. I have closed and reopened the app several times. Sometimes it will prompt me to “sign in,” but when I press the button, nothing happens at all. Other times when I reopen the app, it recognizes me as already signed in with my old microsoft account. When I then go to sign myself out, the same thing happens. I click sign out and nothing happens. Every now and then when I click sign out, it will bump me back a page, but it won’t sign me out. Terrible app.

The iPhone and this app would be better off if Apple would allow it to show more info in the top drop down menu, or show up on the lock screen. The best parts that made the Windows Phone so spectacular at scheduling, automating, and communication are lacking in iPhone. This could help with that. Overall this app helps bring you a little office365 windows comfort to your iPhone. That is great! If only it made the audio sound as good as the Windows Lumia 950. It does not have Cortana news like Windows did either. You will need to get used to swiping open the left lock screen to review Cortana info.

Cortana offers an amazing experience for fans of the Microsoft ecosystem. I use Cortana to set location and time-based reminders, but I especially enjoy how she works across devices and platforms. I use a pair of Surface Headphones, and she works really well with the app on my phone. However, I only wish that the device and software interface would be improved more. There are times when I speak into my Surface Headphones and the Cortana App doesn’t immediately respond or it toggles the pop-up message indicating that she is listening but then registers an error. I really urge Microsoft to fix these sort of bugs to make Cortana flawless.

As someone who uses a Windows 10 phone, a Surface Pro 3, and a Windows 10 laptop, I love that Microsoft has taken the road less traveled and given other platforms access to some of its popular software (still waiting for Google and Apple to do that). This Cortana app, along with Office, OneDrive, Xbox, Groove, Skype, etc. allow me to more or less avoid using the built-in iOS applications, giving my iPad another shot at being useful in some way. Of course, the nature of iOS keeps Cortana from being as integrated as it is on Windows, but it's still a lot better than Siri. A lot, LOT better than Siri.