Friday, September 16, 2011

Introducing Voice Actions for Android in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain

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]
And of course, you can still conduct a Google search using your voice.

Use Voice Actions to get directions, or send a text using just your voice

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!

Posted by Bertrand Damiba, Product Manager
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27 comments:

  1. MattAndroidSeptember 16, 2011 at 1:16 AM

    Please add more voice commands like control music, star apps etc etc...

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  2. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2011 at 1:41 AM

    And Catalan?

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  3. UnknownSeptember 16, 2011 at 2:04 AM

    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.

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  4. garethSeptember 16, 2011 at 2:36 AM

    I'm confused. I'm in the UK and have been using voice actions ever since I got my HTC Desire 9 months ago.

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  5. alexSeptember 16, 2011 at 3:44 AM

    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.

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  6. AndySeptember 16, 2011 at 3:44 AM

    very good, except it isn't very good with Glasgow accents, it gets it right less than 10 percent of the time

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  7. PickysaurusSeptember 16, 2011 at 3:54 AM

    Hasn't popped on my UK Desire HD or Motorola Xoom.. Market itself doesn't mention an update.

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  8. AndréSeptember 16, 2011 at 5:30 AM

    Very good, Google. And how about some love for Pt-Br?

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  9. Nuno BarrosSeptember 16, 2011 at 6:23 AM

    When will it be available in European Portuguese?

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  10. DAVID G.September 16, 2011 at 7:33 AM

    How do I say voice commands to control MUSIC in spanish?


    Gregori
    androidgeeky.weebly.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. RussSeptember 16, 2011 at 7:57 AM

    "set alarm for xx:xx" doesn't work, that was the best one.

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  12. David RousseauSeptember 16, 2011 at 7:59 AM

    Does that work for Canadian devices setup in French?

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  13. DiegoSeptember 16, 2011 at 8:52 AM

    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.

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  14. kEiThZSeptember 16, 2011 at 10:22 AM

    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?

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  15. SimãoSeptember 16, 2011 at 4:45 PM

    As always, an offline mode would be so nice...

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  16. Codefrux Technologies PVT LTDSeptember 17, 2011 at 1:46 AM

    Good Google!!how about in the India!!!eagerly waiting for that!!

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  17. UnknownSeptember 18, 2011 at 10:31 PM

    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.

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  18. Blue BirdSeptember 19, 2011 at 1:51 AM

    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.

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  19. SpaceQSeptember 19, 2011 at 2:11 AM

    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

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  20. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2011 at 2:17 AM

    Thanks for the info! It is great resolution, i hope this latest applications wonderfully helpful!


    Sample forms

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  21. UnknownSeptember 22, 2011 at 7:58 PM

    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

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  22. TimSeptember 25, 2011 at 1:32 AM

    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.

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  23. BerendSeptember 27, 2011 at 2:57 AM

    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...

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  24. AnonymousSeptember 27, 2011 at 10:42 AM

    Tubeem - Yellow Pages
    Web Directory
    Web Lyceum
    Paper
    Mobile

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousSeptember 27, 2011 at 10:43 AM

    Tubeem - Yellow Pages
    Web Directory
    Web Lyceum
    Paper
    Mobile

    ReplyDelete
  26. shanklin07September 27, 2011 at 8:49 PM

    This is a big deal. I had no idea this was not available in said countries. +1 Google

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  27. terjeSeptember 29, 2011 at 3:21 AM

    when is voice action comming with norwegain users?

    ReplyDelete

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