Introducing Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain
Friday, September 16, 2011 | 1:08 AM
Last year in the US, we introduced Voice Actions, a series of spoken commands that let you control your Android phone or tablet with your voice. You can call businesses and contacts, send texts, browse the web and complete other common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone.
Today, we’re pleased to announce that users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain can now use Voice Actions in British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, open the Voice Search app, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen. You can see how it works in this video.
Speak any of these commands to perform a Voice Action on your phone:
- send text to [contact] [message]
- call [business]
- call [contact]
- go to [website]
- navigate to [location/business name]
- directions to [location/business name]
- map of [location]
Voice Actions is available on phones and tablets running Android 2.2 and higher. If you don't have Voice Search on your phone yet, you can download it from Android Market - if you do have Voice Search, you can just start using Voice Actions.
We think Voice Actions helps you get things done on your phone faster and easier. Give it a try, and let us know what you think!
Labels: android, france, germany, google search by voice, italy, Mobile Blog, spain, uk, voice actions, voice search
27 comments:
MattAndroid said...
Please add more voice commands like control music, star apps etc etc...
September 16, 2011 at 1:16 AM
Anonymous said...
And Catalan?
September 16, 2011 at 1:41 AM
Unknown said...
Matt, there's an API.
That basically means that developers can tap into the system, creating their own commands for their own applications, without Google needing to add them or approve of them.
I've been waiting for this for a while, thanks for this feature.
The only related thing I'd like now is the feature that adapts to your and learns how you speak, to increase voice recognition accuracy.
US users have had this for a little while now. I understand that it's being tested there and will eventually roll-out to Europe, but I'm really looking forward to it.
September 16, 2011 at 2:04 AM
gareth said...
I'm confused. I'm in the UK and have been using voice actions ever since I got my HTC Desire 9 months ago.
September 16, 2011 at 2:36 AM
alex said...
As gareth said, the only ones of these I haven't had for ages are messages and go to website, the rest I've had on my Desire Z for months! Sad the play music command didn't come to us though, that would've been great.
September 16, 2011 at 3:44 AM
Andy said...
very good, except it isn't very good with Glasgow accents, it gets it right less than 10 percent of the time
September 16, 2011 at 3:44 AM
Pickysaurus said...
Hasn't popped on my UK Desire HD or Motorola Xoom.. Market itself doesn't mention an update.
September 16, 2011 at 3:54 AM
André said...
Very good, Google. And how about some love for Pt-Br?
September 16, 2011 at 5:30 AM
Nuno Barros said...
When will it be available in European Portuguese?
September 16, 2011 at 6:23 AM
DAVID G. said...
How do I say voice commands to control MUSIC in spanish?
Gregori
androidgeeky.weebly.com
September 16, 2011 at 7:33 AM
Russ said...
"set alarm for xx:xx" doesn't work, that was the best one.
September 16, 2011 at 7:57 AM
David Rousseau said...
Does that work for Canadian devices setup in French?
September 16, 2011 at 7:59 AM
Diego said...
You should post a list with all the possible actions in the different languages. I'm not sure which is the correct way of sending an sms with voice actions in Spanish, to be honest.
September 16, 2011 at 8:52 AM
kEiThZ said...
Now if only Google would show its Canadian neighbours some love. Our language is a combination of British English and Quebecois French. This means we choose British English or international French. They both screw up street names in the other language (which is common here....English Ottawa has lots of French named streets and French Montreal has lots of English named streets) and the latter gives you the AZERTY keyboard when Canadian francophones use the QWERTY keyboard. Come on Google, what's so hard about combining two languages you already have on file?
September 16, 2011 at 10:22 AM
Simão said...
As always, an offline mode would be so nice...
September 16, 2011 at 4:45 PM
Codefrux Technologies PVT LTD said...
Good Google!!how about in the India!!!eagerly waiting for that!!
September 17, 2011 at 1:46 AM
Unknown said...
Hey Google thanks so much, but guess India too needs the feature. After all, India is one of the biggest English speaking country in the world. And is quite similar to UK English.
September 18, 2011 at 10:31 PM
Blue Bird said...
This is a great feature for the Android that a voice capability has been added t make it more interesting and help others by this good feature. This type of characteristics will make the Business Mobile Phone easy for most of the business men and busy persons.
September 19, 2011 at 1:51 AM
SpaceQ said...
Great feature. Are there any plans to expand it for developers?
I'm Looking for "Send me" +"taxi" which would invoke my application/activity and same as "navigate to" will display address where to send taxi... (no need to determine place as this would be taken from gps).... if anybody knows how to achieve this pls. let me know. Thanx in advance..
exooc at gmail.com
September 19, 2011 at 2:11 AM
Anonymous said...
Thanks for the info! It is great resolution, i hope this latest applications wonderfully helpful!
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September 19, 2011 at 2:17 AM
Anonymous said...
I was waiting for this a long time, quite easy to use this. Looking at the success of this application it seems that soon it will available in all countries.
Mobile Applications
September 22, 2011 at 7:58 PM
Tim said...
Misleading title. Should be "a few more voice actions available".
Some of the one you listed (e.g. Navigate to..., call..) were already available, and some (listen to... Note to self... Etc.) still aren't.
Dissapointing.
September 25, 2011 at 1:32 AM
Berend said...
While I think its great that the number of supported languages is increased for fancy voice control, how about adding voice dial for all languages first?
I am waiting for Dutch voice dialing since I bought my Hero; a feature my old Nokia N95 performed without internet and years ago.
This is a big deal for people who use the phone in a car, as we are not allowed to hold the phone while driving.
Sadly, until this is sorted I see no reason to buy another Android phone again as every other platform does have this feature - in Dutch...
September 27, 2011 at 2:57 AM
Anonymous said...
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September 27, 2011 at 10:42 AM
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September 27, 2011 at 10:43 AM
shanklin07 said...
This is a big deal. I had no idea this was not available in said countries. +1 Google
September 27, 2011 at 8:49 PM
terje said...
when is voice action comming with norwegain users?
September 29, 2011 at 3:21 AM
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