Cortana Voice Library
Even though Cortana itself wasn't released as part of the Windows Phone 8.1 SDK, the grammar library which will be used by the digital voice assistant has been included by Microsoft. There are options to call contacts or numbers, play media files, send texts, or search the Windows Phone Store. There are also the requisite options to get weather info, stock prices, do conversions, get news, find videos, find recipes, or find places. On the personal assistant side of things, you'll be able to set alarms, create calendar appointments, take notes, and set reminders.
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It is not known if this list of commands will expand with the final release of Windows Phone 8.1, But, even if it has the standard set of functionality that you might expect, that should make for a great first release for Microsoft.
Cortana may support 15 languages at launch
Some information which has been extracted from the Windows Phone 8.1 emulator has found a number of language pack files in it for Cortana. In total, there are 15 languages/regional language variations that could be supported by Cortana at launch. The language packs found in the emulator include: German, English (UK, US, and India), Spanish (Spain and Mexico), French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, and Chinese (Cantonese, Hong Kong, and Taiwan).
There have been conflicting reports on Cortana offering multiple languages, with some sources confirming that the voice assistant will only offer English at launch.
More Cortana speech, emotion and features revealed
The language packs for Cortana, the Windows Phone 8.1 voice assistant, was released yesterday, which gives us a better idea of what Cortana will say, the variations in emotion, and more features that we can expect.
First, it seems you'll be able to name Cortana anything you want. Halo fans will know why Microsoft chose this name for their digital voice assistant, and while we feel its a clever choice, its good to know that Microsoft is giving general users a choice to select a name that suits their interests and personalities...
We learned a couple days ago that Cortana would have emotion, but at the time we only heard that the circular icon that represents Cortana would be animated to show that emotion. Now, we're learning that there will likely also be tonal shifts in how Cortana responds based on emotional cues. The code shows 6 emotional states for Cortana
- Considerate,
- Sensitive,
- Satisfied
- Abashed (embarrassed)
- Thinking
- Sorry
A community member, from The Verge has gone through the entire file, and has made some observations on what we should expect from Cortana. Here are the highlights of what Hobel found:
- Cortana has been designed to sound casual and personal.
- There will be multiple ways to phrase the same message to avoid repetition.
- Cortana will use a fair amount of slang (at least in US English).
- Cortana will have back-and-forth interactions to clarify commands or questions, and to gather more info for things like alarms, rather than punting you into the alarms app and having you fill out the information.
- You will be able to save nicknames for contacts through Cortana.
- It will offer multiple ways to view calendar information including for one day, a weekend, or more.
- You can change event information, and if you are about to double-book yourself, Cortana will warn you.
- There is a phrase in the file which has Cortana warning "I can't do this while on a call", indicating it will be available while you're on the phone, and you will be able to use Cortana to turn on the speakerphone.
- You can search for messages either by contact name or with a phrase that would be in the message.
- You can assign speed dial numbers and use those to call contacts.
- Cortana will ask "Send it, add more, or try again?" after you dictate a message.
- When you receive a message, you can say "read it" or "ignore". After reading it you can say "reply", "call" or "I'm done".
Hobel does mention that the language files for other languages are not present, which contradicts the possibility of multiple language support at launch. This means that Cortana will be English-only at launch. Still, this is an impressive list of features, especially when considering that this only covers the local commands, and doesn't touch on questions and commands that you'll be able to use when running through Bing.
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