Introduction

The Bot Application runs inside an application, like Cortana, Skype, web chat, Facebook, Message, etc. Users can interact with bots by sending them messages, commands, and inline requests. You control your bots using HTTPS requests to the bot API.

Cortana is a virtual assistant created by Microsoft for Windows 10, Cortana Device and Windows 10 Mobile. Unlike other bots which are available on business web pages which provide visibility only to the customers visiting their site, a Cortana bot is very easy to find. It is visible to around 150 million people across 13 countries. A Cortana bot interacts very well with customers. It can receive and send messages using typing and speaking. In this article, I am going to show how we can connect the Cortana channel and integrate a Bot Application to Cortana.

Create And Build A Cortana Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework

Create FAQ Bot Application

You can refer to my previews article to create and build a Xamarin FAQ Bot using Azure Bot Service and deploy it into Azure. I am not using any coding for developing the Bot Application, you can follow the provided steps in the article to create and deploy FAQ Bot.

Connect Cortana Channels

Login to Azure portal > Select the “All Resources” > Select Channels > Select Cortana icon. Let us start to configure the “Cortana “Channel and follow the below steps, at the end of this article you will be able to deploy the Bot into the Cortana.

Enable Cortana Debug

Cortana has test group setting configuration and world setting configuration, when connecting your bot with the Cortana channel, some basic information about your bot will be pre-filled into the registration form. Always before releasing a bot to the public, start with beta testing within the team members for testing so let we can first learn about test group configuration.

Test Group Setting (Beta)

Provide a bot icon in the Cortana panel. The icon should be within 32 KB and format will only support PNG.
Display name should be the same as your bot name.
Provide unique Invocation name for identifying the Bot.
Provide testing members' email ID and add up to 30 members into the Group.

Create And Build A Cortana Bot Using Microsoft Bot Framework

Once you've filled in all the information, click on “Save Changes”. Wait for few seconds for completing the Save process, all the team members will get an email notification. You can also use group access url for accepting Cortana skill test group.

Cortana Bot Beta Testing

You can invoke your Cortana Bot by speaking or typing an invocation phrase to Cortana.

Step 1

Open Cortana

Step 2

Click "about me," the icon from side navigation and make sure your group testing email id and Notebook email id is the same, if not logout and sign in again.

Step 3

Click on the microphone button in the Cortana app or in the "Ask me anything" search box in Windows, and say your bot's name. I have created a demo for Cortana Bot, I am saying “ask xamarinQABot”, it will ask to accept your permission, after clicking on Accept, let me start to ask a Xamairn question. It will take all the user input and get all the responses from your bot.

Publish Cortana Bot

Once published, the Cortana team will review and test the Bot application, after that it will be available in the public.

Provide Bot icon that is displayed in the Cortana panel when the user is typing to your bot. The icon should be within 32 KB and format will inly support PNG.
Display name should be the same as your bot name.
Provide unique Invocation name for identifying the Bot.
Provide a short and long description about your bot application

You can provide a sample invocation phrase for testing, it will be helpful to the Cortana review team and provide a category, subcategory and multiple tag name.

You can provide a support platform as below and privacy URL and Click on Deploy.

Android
IOS
Windows desktop, surface and Phone.
Speaker

You can accept the Microsoft terms of service and click on save, wait for days, you will get a mail from the Cortana team regarding Cortana skill validation result, if anything is pending from your end, you can review and modify and submit review again.

Test Cortana Bot

Once your Bot Application is accepted, you will get email notification regarding its public availability. You can start saying “hey Cortana ask <your Bot name> to <question> “.

Summary

In this article, you have learned how to integrate a bot application into Cortana via Azure Microsoft AI. If you have any questions/ feedback/ issues, please write in the comment box.