Has Windows Phone 8/8.1 hands-free response texting function been removed?

One of the great things about my Windows Phone is that while driving, incoming text messages are read to me over my car radio via Bluetooth and then I’m asked if I want to reply, which I can do hands-free via voice which is then sent as a text. All without touching my phone or any controls on the car. Recently, however, my response attempts fail with status such as “The Internet and I are not talking right now”. This used to happen only when I forgot to turn on the data connection, but now it seems to happen consistently even when the data connection is active.

Has anyone else experienced this problem (if anyone here still has a WP 8/8.1) or is this likely to be a problem with my individual phone? Thanks.

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Conversation 6 comments

  • AnOldAmigaUser

    Premium Member
    14 July, 2019 - 1:13 pm

    <p>I guess there are a few more months of support left, but I finally let go of Windows Phone when the monthly updates started borking applications that had been working, forcing me to uninstall and reinstall them. Still miss it, as I am not a huge user of apps.</p><p>If the feature was just dropped this week, I would suspect the monthly update. I just don't think they put much care into them for Windows Phone at this point. If you can roll the update back or uninstall and reinstall messaging, perhaps it will start working again.</p>

  • sandy

    18 July, 2019 - 7:56 pm

    <p>I still miss this feature from Windows Phone.</p><p><br></p><p>If I recall correctly the feature relied on Cortana – with voice recognition &amp; response done in Microsoft's cloud – so a change to Cortana's back-end systems/software presumably broke this function on your (sadly) no-longer-supported phone operating system.</p>

    • tsay

      Premium Member
      21 July, 2019 - 4:19 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#443674">In reply to Sandy:</a></em></blockquote><p>Aye, that sounds about right. Still running on a W10M 950XL and become finally resolved to move on when the offical support terminates end of this year. But there's several drop outs in recent few weeks:</p><p><br></p><p class="ql-indent-1">- Facebook App unilaterally hoicked out of action</p><p class="ql-indent-1">- Facebook Messenger also unilaterally gone AWOL</p><p class="ql-indent-1">- Instagram too had a full on classical social media frollop and has also stormed off</p><p class="ql-indent-1"><br></p><p class="ql-indent-1">(Yet WhatsApp proudly showing off a new user alert stating support will terminate at the END OF THE YEAR, not earlier)</p><p class="ql-indent-3"><br></p><p>And it's understandable that 3rd party functionality and apps would be steadily impinged then vanish….</p><p><br></p><p>But Cortana appears to have had a real huff. Although W10M is not (was never) supported by the new Your Phone app on W10, Cortana was steadfastly managing against the odds, batling seriously adverse conditions and continuing the synch/integration between W10M and W10 for notifications, texts, other messaging, mail, calendar, interests, favourites, sports teams, etc…..</p><p><br></p><p>Et maintenant? Non!</p>

  • MikeGalos

    21 July, 2019 - 12:15 am

    <p>Windows Phone 8.x is no longer supported and hasn't been for a while. Windows Phone 10 still has a few months of limited support (security fixes but no fixes for compatibility for new products and features)</p>

    • skane2600

      21 July, 2019 - 12:25 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#444002">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm not sure removing features should be a legitimate consequence of no longer being supported. I would expect the consequences of not being supported would be limited to no longer fixing bugs, adding features, or providing technical support. Windows XP hasn't been supported for 5 years and yet it's still functionally intact.</p><p><br></p>

      • Lauren Glenn

        23 July, 2019 - 6:11 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#444004">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes but like Windows Phone 7, you still need the service from Microsoft and much like Zune, they just turned off that service or servers that would do this work. Without that service, you can't get a response. The phone wasn't doing the work…. it was being offloaded to a server.</p>

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