In a slightly low-key press conference in the US this evening, Google has just revealed a thorough update to its voice recognition tools – which adds many new voice-activated controls to Android. Not just to Search, but to everything.
For example, saying “Listen to…” followed by a band name will pop up your phone’s music playing apps, or you can set your alarm by saying “Set alarm for…” whenever you get up.
Here’s Google’s list of voice actions:
Speak any of these commands to perform a Voice Action on your phone
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]
It’s rather clever. As long as it can cope with our accents, of course. That’s always Problem #1 with these things. Here’s Voice Actions in… action:
That’s a worryingly Apple-like presentation video. Read more about Voice Actions for Android over on the Google Mobile blog. Oh, and one other little issue – it requires Android 2.2 in order to work. Oh well. Nothing to see here then 
It’s smooth to use, the 1080p display is sharp, clear and bright, the device is extremely light and thin and therefore very pocketable and portable — much more so than other 5-inch phones we’ve used. And yet… we’re a bit unimpressed by the overall package…
A relatively high-spec smartphone, with a 4.5″ display running at 480 x 854 resolution and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, plus the Ascend G510 arrives running Android 4.1.1 — albeit potentially hindered by Huawei only sticking 512MB of RAM inside it..
The Panasonic Eluga marks the company’s return to the European mobile phone scene years after several years of absence, and it’s come back to us with a moderately high-spec Android model that features a rather stylish, slim case.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
DrB
/ August 12, 2010Looks like it’s not available in UK Market? Is this US only for now?
shabby
/ August 12, 2010Market, navigation, voice commands, voice search. Suddenly Android feels a little crippled for people living outside of Google-approved areas. :/
Anonymous
/ August 13, 2010works kind of ok on my desire. Struggles with my yorkshire accent.
edhe
/ August 13, 2010Not gotten one thing right yet, and i don’t do much of an accent [despite being glaswegian]
NB i want my dictation back that was removed when my 2.2 upgraded desire stopped me using HTC_IME mod
Gary C
/ August 13, 2010I wouldn’t use it, for the same reason I’m put off Swype. The time saved is negated by the occasions when you have to have five goes at getting one particular word right. At least slowly typing always just works.
DaveC
/ August 13, 2010I’ve downloaded the new stuff and rebooted the phone, but still can’t get the commands to work even though it recognises what I am saying.