Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jaclyn Carley Knapp

Jonathan Reed Harris

Ashok Kuppusamy

Jesse Daniel Eskes Rusak

Richard Leigh Mains

Jayant Sivarama Krishnamurthy

Michael Francis Palermiti, Ii

Chad Steven Estes

Allison Anne O'Mahony

Harris Syed

David Ernesto Heekin Burkett

Diego Hernan Carlomagno

Talon Edward Ireland

Jose Miguel Rady Allende

Jose Alberto Rodriguez

Andrew Paul McGovern

Viktoriya Taranov

Poorva Singal

Tudor Buzasu Klein

Sergiy Gavrylenko

Chaitanya Dev Sareen

Lisa Joy Stifelman

Richard Jennings Duncan

Miron Vranjes

Christopher Doan

Anshul Rawat

Megan Lesley Tedesco

Nora Micheva

Brian Eric Uphoff

Henri-Charles Machalani

Allison Gallant

Jeff G Arnold

Matthew Neil Akers

Jin Xu

André Roberto Lima Tapajós

Kaichun Wu

Steven DiCarlo

Yuhua Guan

Andrew Paul Mcgovern

Matthew N Akers

Various embodiments discussed herein enable client applications to be heavily integrated with a voice assistant in order to perform commands associated with voice utterances of users via voice assistant functionality and also seamlessly cause client applications to automatically perform native functions as part of executing the voice utterance. Such heavy integration also allows particular embodiments to support multi-modal input from a user for a single conversational interaction. In this way, client application user interface interactions, such as clicks, touch gestures, or text inputs are executed alternative or in addition to the voice utterances.

Voice assistant-enabled client application with user view context and multi-modal input support

Various embodiments discussed herein enable client applications to be heavily integrated with a voice assistant in order to both perform commands associated with voice utterances of users via voice assistant functionality and also seamlessly cause client applications to automatically perform native functions as part of executing the voice utterance. For example, some embodiments can automatically and intelligently cause a switch to a page the user needs and automatically and intelligently cause a population of particular fields of the page the user needs based on a user view context and the voice utterance.

Voice assistant-enabled client application with user view context

A method of operating a computing device in support of improved accessibility includes displaying a user interface to an application on a display screen of the computing device, wherein the computing device includes an accessibility assistant that reads an audible description of an element of the user interface; initiating, on the computing device, a virtual assistant that conducts an audible conversation between a user and the virtual assistant through at least a microphone and a speaker associated with the computing device, wherein the virtual assistant is not integrated with an operating system of the computing device; inhibiting an ability of the accessibility assistant to read the audible description of the element of the user interface; and upon transition of the virtual assistant from an active state, enabling the ability of the accessibility assistant.

Interplay between digital assistive technology

Techniques involving control of interaction with an application launcher are described. In one or more implementations, interaction with a plurality of representations of applications or content in an application launcher is controlled by a computing device. The plurality of representations are selectable to navigate to a user interface corresponding with a respective said application or content. The controlling includes detection of which of a plurality of types of interaction are used by a user in relation to the application launcher. Responsive to the detection that a gesture type of interaction is used, a manage mode is entered in which customization or commands of the representations is initiated using gestures that are not usable to initiate the customization or commands outside the manage mode. Responsive to detection that a cursor or keyboard type of interaction is used, the customization or the commands of the representations is enabled using a cursor control device or keyboard, respectively, without entering the manage mode.

Control of representation interaction within an application launcher

Application launcher sizing techniques are described. In one or more implementations, a likely usage context is determined, by a computing device, of a user in interacting with the computing device. An application launcher is dynamically sized within a display area of the user interface by the computing device based on the determined likely usage context of the user. The application launcher is configured for output responsive to an input received from a user and includes a plurality of representations of applications that are selectable to navigate to a user interface corresponding with a respective said application.

Application launcher sizing

Display screen with graphical user interface

Display screen with animated graphical user interface

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Jaclyn Carley Knapp