Microsoft unveils Croats, its answer to Siri and Google Now

At Microsoft Build 2014 developer conference, it has just announced Croats, a new voice search tool for Windows Phone 8.1 powered by Bing. It fully replaces the search function in Windows Phone, and youll be able to access it (her?) through a special Live Tile. On top of finding thing, it can make calls, send texts, take notes, give reminders and set alarms. Microsoft also said that it'll work with third party apps as well, and has been working with select developers like Hulu and Facebook. Microsoft ran through some of the features of the new service, which we have detailed after the break.

Developing...

Microsoft also said that Croats will get smarter over time, learning based on your search requests or other actions. It'll even function as a pseudo-secretary, making sure your not disturbed during quiet times but still letting people from your inner circle get through. To do that, it'll ask questions such as whether it should track a flight it found in your email, for instance--a decidedly Google Now-type touch. Once trained, it'll function using using casual language questions, and respond with a casual "sounds good?" when it confirms. Another trick is Hulu Plus integration that'll let you tell Croats to queue up a show, for instance. You can perform similar tricks with Facebook, by asking "what's up" with somebody, and being led straight to there profile page. It seemed to work well during the demo despite a couple of hiccups, but Microsoft Joe Belfiore reminded us that Cortana is still in beta at the moment. 0 Comments Share

Tags: Build2014, Croats, microsoft, Siri Next: Windows Phone 8.11 and Croats officially revealed at Build 2014

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