When I got my hands on the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G Slide and had a chance to play with the enhanced Genius features, I kept wondering why we couldn’t all have the cool features of sending email and text messages using just our voice. The guys over at Google obviously have some form of telepathy and heard my thoughts.
Google today announced in a press conference in San Fransisco that they have released an updated voice service for all devices running Android 2.2 and above. The new enhanced voice control add-on for Android now includes Voice Actions that allow you control more features of your Android device than previously permitted.
Quoted from Google announcement today:
Voice Actions are a series of spoken commands that let you control your phone using your voice. Call businesses and contacts, send texts and email, listen to music, browse the web, and complete common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone
I played around with the application a little this afternoon and I can say that’s its working very well on my Google Nexus One. Accurate voice recognition and command detection seemed to be the order of the day and most of my attempts at sending emails, text messages and navigation commands went through without a hitch.
Mike LeBeau, the lead engineer for Voice Actions, shows you how it all works in this video:
Google has added quite a few extra commands to the existing voice search facility in Android. They include:
- send text to [contact] [message]
- listen to [artist/song/album]
- call [business]
- call [contact]
- send email to [contact] [message]
- go to [website]
- note to self [note]
- navigate to [location/business name]
- directions to [location/business name]
- map of [location]
If you’ve already got Android 2.2 on your device, when you get a chance, head over to the Android Market and download the updated Voice Search application.
You can click or scan the QRCode below from your phone so head over and download it now.
What other features do you think Google could add to Android to make our every day lives more exciting?
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Thanks! I just installed it. Looking good!
Thanks! I just installed it. Looking good!
[...] Read Tags: control feature, google, long wait, mobile phone, new voice, san francisco, voice control Categories: Other HTC News. [...]
I’ve found with my Nexus One, the “Listen To” and “Set Alarm For” features are not working properly. If anyone else is having similar issues, you can follow the help thread here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?fid=2d4adfef37672a2200048daa9b1ed878&hl=en
I’ve found with my Nexus One, the “Listen To” and “Set Alarm For” features are not working properly. If anyone else is having similar issues, you can follow the help thread here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?fid=2d4adfef37672a2200048daa9b1ed878&hl=en
Google mobile help says that they are actively working to update the Clock application to support the voice commands. You can see Googles brief answer here:
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=187559
You can also check out this page for more info on the voice commands available.
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187455
Google mobile help says that they are actively working to update the Clock application to support the voice commands. You can see Googles brief answer here:
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=187559
You can also check out this page for more info on the voice commands available.
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187455
I started a thread with more info on the available commands and the issues found so far.
You can find it here:
http://forum.androidspin.com/showthread.php?t=3280
I started a thread with more info on the available commands and the issues found so far.
You can find it here:
http://forum.androidspin.com/showthread.php?t=3280
Package isn’t signed correctly for froyo roms. Won’t work on cheifzreloaded’s froyo rom.
Package isn’t signed correctly for froyo roms. Won’t work on cheifzreloaded’s froyo rom.
If anyone has hints on using the “send text to” command. It picks up the command correctly (opens the text window), but it puts everything in the message field and doesn’t fill out the to field.
So “Send text to John…Hi John, be there soon” puts “John Hi John be there soon” in the message body. Oh well, guess it’s good I don’t text too often, lol
_Mark
I found that it doesn’t fill in the TO field if it didn’t recognize the name. Would be nice if it told you it didn’t recognize the name.
If anyone has hints on using the “send text to” command. It picks up the command correctly (opens the text window), but it puts everything in the message field and doesn’t fill out the to field.
So “Send text to John…Hi John, be there soon” puts “John Hi John be there soon” in the message body. Oh well, guess it’s good I don’t text too often, lol
_Mark
I found that it doesn’t fill in the TO field if it didn’t recognize the name. Would be nice if it told you it didn’t recognize the name.
The voice input is great and seems to work perfectly most of the time, but on my Froyo N1 I noticed that there is a serious bug when using “send to text”. The voice input works fine, and the first message is recorded in the stock messaging app, but then all subsequent voice texts to the same person (which do input fine and I can only assume send out fine) are logged into the messaging app as the first message. In other words, I’ve sent 3 different voice texts to my wife, but when I go look at the conversation in the messaging app, my 3 messages are all the same as the first one. This makes this great feature useless since I can’t track the discussion or even be sure she is getting the right texts. Anyone else notice this? I already emailed Google. Do they even functionally test these things or just put them out as soon as they compile without error? Lol.
The voice input is great and seems to work perfectly most of the time, but on my Froyo N1 I noticed that there is a serious bug when using “send to text”. The voice input works fine, and the first message is recorded in the stock messaging app, but then all subsequent voice texts to the same person (which do input fine and I can only assume send out fine) are logged into the messaging app as the first message. In other words, I’ve sent 3 different voice texts to my wife, but when I go look at the conversation in the messaging app, my 3 messages are all the same as the first one. This makes this great feature useless since I can’t track the discussion or even be sure she is getting the right texts. Anyone else notice this? I already emailed Google. Do they even functionally test these things or just put them out as soon as they compile without error? Lol.
[...] This version is a release candidate, but you will find it stable for everyday use. It’s an AOSP-based build with extra contributions from many people which you can use without any type of Google applications. A link has been provided below if you want the Google Add ons which feature the new Voice Actions. [...]
[...] Google Addon has also been updated – MDPI-TINY-20100814) - to include the new Google Voice Actions features. Some CM6-RC3 features include the new boot animation, a fully customizable power widget, [...]