Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android

Thursday, August 12, 2010 | 10:26 AM

(cross-posted with the Official Google Blog)

Our mobile phones have become modern-day Swiss Army knives. An Android phone is a handheld computer, a music player, a notepad, a GPS navigation unit and more, all rolled into one sleek device that fits in your pocket. Today’s phones do so many things for us that sometimes we don’t even think about how we do them.

Even though our phones do all these new things, the most natural way of interacting with a phone remains what it always has been: speaking. And to that end, we’re pleased to introduce Voice Actions for Android. 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.

To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen. Let Mike LeBeau, the lead engineer for Voice Actions, show you in this video.


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




While we’re at it, we’re also releasing an updated version of the Google search widget for Android. When you type a local search query, like [italian restaurants] you’ll see suggested restaurants with addresses and ratings. Also, as you type queries, you can refine them further by tapping the pencil icon that appears to the right of search suggestions.

Both Voice Actions and the new Google search widget require Android 2.2 (Froyo), and will be pre-installed with the new Droid 2 phone from Motorola and Verizon. Voice Actions are currently available for U.S. English speakers.

If you have another phone with Android 2.2 (like the Nexus One, HTC Evo or the original Droid), you’ll need to download several app updates from Android Market to get all the latest goodness:
  • Voice Search (this app includes Voice Actions)
  • Google Search widget
  • music apps (e.g. Pandora, Last.fm, Rdio, mSpot)
To get started fast, scan the QR codes for these apps below.

We think Voice Actions help you get things done on your phone faster and easier. Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Voice SearchSearch widget

173 comments:

sentimancho said...

need it now !

Matt Parker said...

thanks. this is a great update. One question though, it says that to use listen to, you need to have a music app installed that responds to that. Does that mean the native music application cannot use the voice search?

sub said...

English language only? What a pitty...

Unknown said...

can't find it in store

Unknown said...

Same here, no voice search in store....

nihir said...

Does US English mean it's only available in the US? Canadians speak pretty much the same English=)

Either way, I can't find it in the store, keeping in mind I live in Canada.

Narphobula said...

How about you guys update the HTC Hero for Sprint to 2.1 so I can actually enjoy things like this...

ComputerSherpa said...

My phone (Droid X) doesn't get Froyo for a few weeks. Will this be included with Froyo, or do I need to bookmark this post and come back?

AlmostRobert said...

I'm loving it so far.

Unknown said...

cant find it!!

josephs2877 said...

Saying "package file not signed correctly" from Market when installing.

Marcus said...

2.2 required...What a bummer... Need FROYO for Incredible please!!!!

Chris said...

Available for US English speakers? Or do you mean, only available for the US? Because it sure isn't in Canada.

Unknown said...

Nexus one user with Froyo and can't find it in the Market (I'm in Spain :/)

BenBeckford said...

Unlocked Nexus One user on 2.2 in the UK can't find it in the market???

Sander Mangel said...

same here.. can't find it on my nexus with froyo (Holland)

Unknown said...

can't find it in market in Poland

Unknown said...

Brilliant for calling people with standard names, but try something exotic and you'll have good laugh.

Unknown said...

Found it in the market but fails to install!

Xavier Corporate Mentalist said...

signed incorrect error with gsearch... nexus one running rooted cyanogen.

Unknown said...

Does it work with Bluetooth at all? And if so, how?

Ian said...

So where can I find a more complete list of all the commands it will accept? :-)

Unknown said...

I also cannot find Voice Search on the market (I'm in Canada).

dyndragon said...

logcat shows that the package is not signed correctly. CM6 nightly...

sherwin said...

voice and search both fail to install - nexus one with cm6rc2 - anyone else?

Unknown said...

Not on the Market in UK on Froyo HTC Desire. Is this another US centric Google thing or will we be getting it too?

Russell said...

Hi
I've also got an up-to-date (2.2) Nexus One, not carrier-locked and can't find in the market. From the UK.

Sebastián said...

I find it in the market, I'm in Mexico, with a Droid Eris running Froyo, but got the "package file not signed correctly" message, so I manually uninstall my Voice Search app bundled with the phone with Titanium Backup, and now I get "update is not compatible".

Tiến Nguyễn said...

I/vending ( 2582): [8] AssetDownloader$DownloadManagerBroadcastReceiver$MyPackageInstallObserver.packageInstalled(): Package install from content://downloads/download/262 failed: Package file was not signed correctly.

Why?

Unknown said...

I'm in the US, on 2.1, and I can't get it in the Market.

sites.google.com/site/3dslovakia - Norbert Chromek said...

wooooooooow this is really really cooool i want it in SLOVAKIA on my WINDOWS MOBILE phone OMNIA 2.
GOOGLE WE LOVE YOU!

Sebastián said...

@adavadas You shouldn't see it, is for 2.2 only

Unknown said...

Looks like we root users are boned: getting "Package file was not signed correctly" when installing from Market. CyanogenMod-6 Droid/VZW

Unknown said...

Seemingly 2.2 US only. Or are there issues with HTC devices or ...

Ryan said...

Definitely seems widespread that custom ROM users can't install this. If anyone can find the apk of the new app, we can try resigning it...

Vincenzo Gammieri said...

Unable to find on Market... I'm on HTC Desire Stok Froyo Rom, in Italy

Brian Stringfellow said...

I had to uninstall current voice search and reboot, but all is well now.

What we really need is "Send Google Talk to". Who does text anymore? Silly when there are so many Android users.

Lawliet said...

If you use AppBrain, you can find it here:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.google.android.voicesearch

Krzysztof Wolny said...

Not locked Nexus One, org Froyo, UK sim and can't find in Market... sth's wrong with it.

Unknown said...

found the google search widget but can't find the voice search on my nexus one india !!

Unknown said...

Seriously Google, upload it to your international Markets or give an explanation of why not, when, if etc.

blunden said...

Just run the following commands to uninstall the old system apps if you use a custom rom.

adb remount

adb shell rm /system/app/GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk
adb uninstall com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

adb shell rm /system/app/VoiceSearch.apk
adb uninstall com.google.android.voicesearch

Then they will install just fine from Market (from the US Market). MarketAccess set to TMO US will allow you to find them.

greew said...

Google Search Widget found and installed. Works like a charm!!

Voice Search not yet available in Android Market in Denmark!

Is it a matter of hours or days/months?

Randy Magruder said...

Also unable to install due to the Package Not Signed correctly error. CM6RC2 on Nexus One. C'mon, Google. Your other stuff installs just fine :(

Jeff Faria said...

Very nice and natural. Voice control is exactly the way these phones should work!

Sebastián said...

I installed it on a custom ROM, just uninstall the previous Voice Search, use @blunden commands or Titanium Backup, reboot and install

KillaW0lf04 said...

I cant find it:( i have voice search installed but i cant seem to find it on the android market

HTC Desire Froyo 2.2
Malta

Please release it here because this is awesome!

Henning said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Unknown said...

This is why I don't miss the iphone anymore... Got it and works great on my EVO on Froyo

Unknown said...

I should be able to control which music app Listen to… triggers, and the AOSP music app should be one of the choices.

NoName said...

use this instructions for the signature error (you have to change the commands though) http://tinyurl.com/ycxpxz4

and use market enabler to find the apps in the market

worked for me on htc magic and cm6 Test2
Enjoy!

Randy Magruder said...

That worked, blunden! Thank you!

Unknown said...

new Voice Search installed. SET ALARM says I don't have the correct alarm app from Google. When I go to get it from the GOOGLE-presented Market link - it doesn't exist.

kwad said...

I have it working on my g1 (running a cyanogen froyo customized build) It works pretty well but you can tell the G1 lacks the horsepower to really make it shine.

NoName said...

The package names (if you can't find them for uninstall) are:
com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox
and com.google.android.voicesearch

Dave said...

When I try to use the alarm set feature I get a dialog that says "In order to use this feature, download the latest Clock from the Android Market." If I hit OK I return to the home screen. If I click the button "Go to web site" there's a line that says "Install the latest version of the Clock app from the Market." This takes me to the Market with and error message that says "There are no matches in Android Market for the search: pname:com.google.android.deskclock"

Any ideas?

Unknown said...

Nexus One, 2.2, CyanogenMod-6.0.0-N1-RC1
I kept getting "installation unsuccessful" alerts when downloading the two new apps from the market. I did a Titanium Backup backup and then used TI to uninstall Google Search and Voice Search apps, hoping that this would allow a fresh install from the market. To no avail though, as I got the same unsuccessful installation alerts, even after restarts. So I'd guess this is an issue with the signed package and custom ROMs, but I'll have to wait to try again once the dev community can close the gaps in the chains between official Android and popular custom ROMs.

Edu said...

I can`t find it. I have a HTC Desire with froyo, but I`m in Brazil.

Ganon11 said...

Listen To... commands should search the music database on the actual phone, and play those songs in the native music app.

Unknown said...

I get a force close error when using the send text voice action with Google Voice. Any fixes ?

Thanks,

Hai

Alex said...

Not on the market on HTC Desire, Romania.
Could you please get this market thing right already, how hard can it be.
It only supports paid apps in 10% of the countries that the AppStore dose and it seems like you keep lunching products for the US market only.
Almost all of the free apps that also have a paid version now in the market also have a second payment service setup just to support other countries. That was the hole point of the Android market so you can find and pay for any app there, but I if have to get a US visa for it to work for me it doesn't do it's job that well.
I am in love with the phone I have right now and Android is progressing very nicely but come on this is a basic thing that should have been fixed 1 year ago...

Billy Barnes said...

I get so annoyed every time Google makes an announcement and then the product isn't available anywhere but the US (and normally they neglect to mention that in the announcement). Especially when there is no discernible reason why it should be available worldwide. I can understand why the app might be English only, but why not make it available to all English speakers? Or all people willing to search in English?

P.S. Google Voice in Canada would be nice too.

sayjava said...

Finland HTC Desire , Voice Search is MIA. is it for US only?

beidsvold said...

I can verify that if you uninstall Voice Search and Google Search with Titanium Backup, reboot, then install the new search it will work just fine.

Rooted EVO - Fresh Froyo ROM

LordMirg said...

I'm using a Google bought Nexus One, Android 2.2 (FRF91), VodafoneUK SIM card.

Goggles can find it using the 2D Barcode, but it says "The requested Item could not be found." when clicking "view in Android Market". :(

Naa said...

HTC Hero w/Sprint v2.1 how come we can get any love? There are other HTC's than just Evo or Droid.

GeekSpeaker said...

You read my mind.. I mean, you read my usage. Operator operator!

Unknown said...

Once again, the loyal Google fans who jumped onboard at the ground floor (G1) get the cold shoulder. Stuck waiting for my contract to end so i can upgrade to a froyo device.

Unknown said...

Couldn't find the app on the android market :(

Although it really reminds me of a cool to do list application i found the other day on the android market called "Taskos To Do List".
It has some of the functionality like the voice google search does (voice recognition, auto complete of contacts and other popular words).

JoeTierney said...

Awesome - works great!

Unknown said...

Works on my Galaxy
S! Sweet!

swrobel said...

How do you launch an app using this?

Unknown said...

It sucks. It does not work 80% of the time. Saying, clearly, send text to steve owen it comes up with TO: (blank) Message: steve 01 this is a test message."

007 Kenny said...

once again US market only typical.... loosing faith in android fast this "US only" stuff keep poping up.

Unknown said...

Not found in the market with Nexus One (Canada).

Can't uninstall current version neither, but it's currently running version: 1.6.0

Rob said...

It'd be nice if the images serving as QR codes doubled as clickable links. I can't very easily scan a QR code when I'm viewing a page on my phone, can I?

Unknown said...

The problem is, 3+ years ago Microsoft had Voice COntrol which did everything, very clearly and easily, and did not have to upload it to the Internet. So dialing was easy, no programming required. You could ask what are my appointments and have it read your day's calendar to you. GOOGLE is SOO FAR BEHIND in technology compared to Microsft. I regret thinking Android 2.2 was more useful than Windows Mobile 6.5.

Unknown said...

The search widget is in the marketplace accessible from Canada, but the updated Voice Search app is not.

Without it, all that happens when I do "Note to self (test test test)" is that Google launches a search and tries to look for Note to self test test test.

The voice recognition is as good as its always been, it's just not activating anything.

Test said...

I got it on my rooted droid runing BB.4, loving it!!!

Chris said...

This blog is useless to navigate with the android browser. Come on mobile team!

Gynnerstedt said...

Ok. For everyone who can't find it on the market, outside US.

Try this in your browser on the phone:
market://details?id=com.google.android.voicesearch

I found it. HTC Desire, 2.2, Sweden.

Unknown said...

that just did a google search instead of opening the market app.

Unknown said...

using the updated search widget, I searched for "com.google.android.voicesearch" and that seemed to have worked.

Gynnerstedt said...

Edward: Make sure that the browser doesn't put http:// before "market://....."

Will S said...

Would be nice if it was available to people with BRAND NEW devices, such as the Droid X, that have yet to get Froyo, and who will be waiting for some time. Same thing with Chrome to phone. This carrier update system is not working well. Blur must be stopped.

Speaking of Blur, can I have a Nexus One plz? :)

jsa said...

With every Android phone having Google Talk, it would be really nice to be able to trigger that instead of having to use expensive SMS.

MrKowasaki said...

I was able to download it from the Android Market in Canada just 5 minutes ago.

Although I could not find the updated Clock application that is needed for the "Set Alarm" action, nor could I get it to dial contacts.

For the dial action it gets the name right, but refuses to match it to any of my contacts. For suggested actions I get a few random selections with the phone icon to dial, and then the correct contact name with the search icon to search. Can this thing not search my own contacts?

Patrick Honorez said...

Oh, nice. I can finally do what my 4 years old Nokia E61 does natively.

sherwin said...

Able to install after uninstalling original voice search and google search via Titanium BU, then rebooting. Running CM6RC2 on Nexus one

Shawn said...

For all those of us with custom roms:

Just like google maps the custom rom app would not update until manually removed.

Easy instructions for windows:
- download the android sdk and unzip it to c:\tools
- On your phone, settings, applications, development, USB debugging
- Run cmd and enter the following:
- c:
- cd c:\tools\android-sdk-windows\tools
- adb root
(at this point you may need to approve root access on the phone)
- adb remount
(you should see remount succeeded)
- adb shell rm /system/app/GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk
- adb uninstall com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

- adb shell rm /system/app/VoiceSearch.apk
- adb uninstall com.google.android.voicesearch
(all the above should succeed)
- Now go back to settings, applications, development and uncheck USB debugging
- Install the apps from the market
(should succeed now)
- I'm not sure how to remount read only again, so I would then reboot your phone.

(A non-noob would be able to tell us better commands, probably).

marknumskull said...

All seems to work ok for me in UK, APART from 'Send Text To' Im using a HTC Desire, I wonder is the messaging app on the desire not compatible with this feature? Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

You need to set the Voice Recognizer language to US English.

Home -> Menu -> Settings -> Voice input & output -> Voice recognizer settings -> Language -> English (US)

It won't work on other languages like English (UK).

Unknown said...

Yet again Google totally miss the point.

Most devices are not officially capable of running 2.2, so what do Google do??

Release a whole host of new apps that dont work on 85% of devices.. Brilliant plan.

Its really starting to get tiresome. Even the SDK docs tell you not to do this if unavoidable and ot program for the lowest SDK version you can.. and since the old voice search works on 2.1 (and did on 1.5) theres NO reason why this cant.

Again Google have just lost the plot completely when it comes to taking its Android OS to the next level.

Gmenozzi said...

Alarm at 8.30?

Easy life this GG guys!

The CounterTerrorist said...

This is a good app - but not great. It would be great if I could add words to its vocabulary when it gets it wrong. For example, I have a friend in my phonebook named "Shawn Price". Every time I try to text or call her, it assumes the spelling is "Sean' and gets it wrong, usually putting "Sean Price" in the message instead of the "to" line, because I don't have a Sean Price in my phone - and it never seems to learn what I mean. If I could customize it or if it could learn what I mean over time, that would be fantastic.

Paul Drummond said...

Thanks for the info Mark Cater. As a UK Nexus One user my language was set to English (UK) and the voice actions wouldn't pick up "send email" or "send text" and many others.

As soon as I switch to English (US) things get better.

Hope they support English (UK) in the future!

MotoVert said...

GOOGLE!!
Can you please add an option so that when I say "Listen to the Beatles" the app actually plays Beatles songs that I have on my phone and NOT ON LAST.FM.

I have 10 gig of music on my motoDroid, and your voice regoc is amazing, but when I need the app, i.e. while driving, I need it to play one of the 10gig of songs I have downloaded, not hop on the 3g superhighway.

I'm sure you guys understand.

The CounterTerrorist said...

Also, if I say "Call" or "Send text to..." it should automatically search my contacts for the best match to the name I say next, even if it's not exactly in its vocabulary. Names for people is always going to be tricky - if it automatically looks for the best match IN THE CONTACTS, it'll get it right 99% of the time. If it tries to match it to something in its own vocabulary, it'll get it wrong 50% of the time.

Alexis said...

followed the comment above:

Gynnerstedt said...

Ok. For everyone who can't find it on the market, outside US.

Try this in your browser on the phone:
market://details?id=com.google.android.voicesearch


works fine!!!! I am in Greece.

Unknown said...

Nice- working great in Canada now, both apps available in the market.

The note to self is great, the go to a website is awesome. Good stuff, Google!

Leigh said...

It seems to me there's a disconnect between Google's pace of development for phone-based features and the realities of hardware-based applications. In the SAS/Cloud world where Google normally operates, applications can be upgraded quickly, because they are fully hosted.

Unfortunately, in the mobile device world, customers are stuck with 2-year contracts and carrier vendors who are uninterested in supporting upgrades.

Even those without a contract are often faced with difficult choices: US customers of the first Android device (the G1) who want Android 2.2 (required for these new applications) must either give up the keyboard or move to another phone carrier. And what's worse, customers who did that just recently will be in an even worse position if they bought an Android 2.1 device with a lagging upgrade. Those folks will be able to upgrade their phones in 2012.

In summary: poor upgrade paths and poor hardware choices for keyboard-based devices make for a difficult time for customers caught between on Google's cloud-speed innovations and the phone carrier's slow-motion upgrades.

BobRocket said...

I want to use Google voice to create an app called Prattle for Twitter, simply speak your message and it breaks it up into tweets of the right size and posts them, a stream of consciousness type of thing rather than composed tweets (good for when you are in the car and hands free). Can any of the code monkeys on here help get this off the ground ?

Tiến Nguyễn said...

"Listen to..." does not bring up local music but send me to Pandora. Is this how it should be?

Unknown said...

Can anyone else get Spotify to register on their device? If I use Last.fm, I can use the 'Listen to' command, but Spotify is not recognised as being installed by the Voice Search app for me.

BLOG Owner said...

The music search is ass. It needs to use the local music library first. Also add grooveshark.

mccarthyand said...

Very buggy on my evo, rarely recognizes who a text or email is to go to leaves that blank and skips to the message. For example the to could be Mary and there will be nothing in the to field and the message will start with merry?

Unknown said...

cool! but i found a bug... when the contact name you want to send has a comma in his name, the comma will not be removed and the name will be treated as two names instead. For example, if I say, "send text to john" and "john" in my phonebook is stored as "john doe, jr." the name will be treated as two names, "john doe" and "jr."... this problem doesn't occur w/ the messaging app because the commas in names are automatically removed. how do i submit this bug to google?

Alex said...

this is the best feature ever.

when I use "send text" voice command, is it possible to configure my NexusOne to send text messages using my "Google Voice" account instead of my regular t-mobile number? this was it will be free :)

Helder Tavares said...

Good work guys, but you have to quickly install the sixth most spoken language in the world with 240 million speakers: The PORTUGUESE

Mike said...

Anyone tried to set your alarm clocks like in the video demo...? It tells me I need to upgrade the clock app but the link it provides is useless and I can't seem to find an update for it in the market.
same with the "listen to" command, it offers to take me to another website to download an app to listen with...I already have several apps including Pandora so what gives?

Unknown said...

FOR ALL WHO ARE UNABLE OR FAILED TO INSTALL THE APP, PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:

Please note: For the Voice Actions to work, Devices must be at Android Froyo 2.2 and Higher

If you are in the UK/ Europe or America, please go to marketplace and search Voice Search. It should be the first one on the app list. Just press the install button.

If the installation comes up with an unsuccessfully error, follow the next steps:

THIS INSTRUCTIONS IS ONLY FOR USERS WITH CUSTOM ROMS or ROOTED DEVICES, ie: Cyanogen 6

1.Install root explorer from the marketplace

2. Once installed, open the program and press the "Mount R/W" at the top.

3. Scroll down to System/app/VoiceSearch.apk

and Tap and Hold, and press
Rename to VoiceSearch.bak

4. Reboot your device and Install from Marketplace again.

5. Voice Search should be working perfectly :)

any further questions, email me:
guitaristgba247@gmail.com

Dave said...

It took several hours for Voice Search to show up in the market for me. I’m in Canada on a Nexus One (running FroYo, of course). I’ve finally installed it and it’s not working terribly well.

“Navigate to,” “directions to,” “map of,” and “call” all work, but “send text to,” “note to self,” “listen to,” “send email to,” and “go to” don’t. They just do a Google search, including the action words. The actions that do work are all listed in the voice search help (when I hit “Help” after pressing the voice button the search widget). The others aren’t.

Anyone know what gives?

Unknown said...

Hey dave, in order for it to work, you cant use the widget.

The widget as youve said only work on certain functions. For the other functions, such as "go to", "send texts" and etc..

Click on the Voice Search App in your app list instead of using the widget. Now, just make a shortcut out of it and place it on your main screen.

So, whenever you need to use it, just click on the Voice Search shortcut in your main screen.

:) gd luck

Tom said...

Thank you for this but please make the native music app "listen to" compatible so I don't have to use web services to control my music by voice.

Ganon11 said...

@alskor: Yes, you have the option of using Google Voice with the "Send text to..." voice command.

Dave said...

@Gabriel: Thanks for the suggestion.
I just tried using the Voice Search and got the exactly the same result. The same actions are listed in the help, and they still work. The others don't.

lowlight said...

Doesn't work for me. When I say "go to twitter.com" for instance, it just does a google search for that phrase.

I am not using a widget, I am running the app directly. Version 2.0.1 according to market.

lowlight said...

I FIGURED IT OUT!

You have to make sure the app is set to use US ENGLISH. If it's set to CANADIAN ENGLISH it won't work for some reason, even though the accents are identical.

*facepalm*

Kon ?? said...

Thanks ! works great.

Can you also add one more voice command "Open " ? would be awesome really !!

Unknown said...

When you ask call someone it only opens a few of my contacts to call it should call any of them useless otherwise same with email & text .

Pretty much useless if only works sometimes

What is really needed is for these voice applications is for them to adapt to an individuals voice

Matt said...

Great product. Nearly has caused me to ditch vlingo...but vlingo has safereader. Also, what gives with the bluetooth dialer being different? Why can't I dictate a text message through bluetooth? or any of the other commands?

Mayur said...

why do i need to be connected to a wifi network or mobile network for it to work?
there must be a way we can store the recogniser on the sd card?

sahil said...

aHSGHKGHKGHK
................
KHAN
........

Maff said...

am using Defrost 2.6 on my desire, using titanium I uninstall both apps, reboot and they are both there again, if I try using adb I get the error: rm failed for /system/app/GoogleQuickSearchBox.apk,Directory not empty

any ideas?
really want to use this app!

Unknown said...

Not avaible in Spanish Market. The link is broken.

Unknown said...

This is a really great funtionality, however dont you think it should be integrated into the new bluetooth dialer?

Unknown said...

Auto Follow People on Twitter For Free
http://autofollowontwitter.com/

jamsh said...

Why can't 'listen to' access the music on my phone????

Ayah Fina said...

will it work on android 2.1?

BrianM said...

This is fantastic

@Wally and anyone else having any problems, remember

1. This is just "Voice Search" app - there is no voice action app. Just update Voice Search in the market (remember to set auto updates so you get these as they come out next time)

2. You do have to set your voice input recognition language to English (US), even if you live in the UK or Australia or New Zealand etc)

@Google - if you need any suggestions for new commands, I suggest Tweet (access Twitter app), Note to Self to allow 3rd party apps like Evernote, and of course music on the phone as well as external music sources).

Many thanks @Google! and @Android!!

Wardell said...

one command I'd like to see added is Schedule[Event name]

Toby said...

Can't detect Spotify on my phone either (HTC Desire) :( Any news?

Unknown said...

@Jamsh

The voice action features currently only allow users to listen to music through an external app. As shown in the video, it could be last FM, or Pandora. Google may implement a new feature to access music on your phone, however only time will tell.


@Ayah Fina

No, it will not work on Android 2.1
You need to update your device to Froyo 2.2. What phone do you have?

Maff said...

I have thousands of songs on my phone, why won't it play them with the default music app?

Unknown said...

Works great but i have the same problem as other people with Spotify, Voice search doesn't seem to detect that it is installed.

Dave said...

@lowlight and BrianM: Thanks for figuring out that you need to set the voice recognition language to US English! At first, I was annoyed because I didn't realize that there's a separate setting for this, so I thought I'd have to change the main language setting for my phone. But I see that I can switch just the voice recognition language, and now all the voice actions are working for me.

Hopefully Google gets this working for other English and non-English languages soon. I can't wait to switch it to Canadian English so I can say "go to cbc.ca, eh!" ;-)

Ksawery said...

I've got the European version of the DROID (Motorola Milestone), and I can't get voice actions, because I can't get 2.2 yet.

Cam you help us to put pressure on Motorola, so we can update to a new version of Android, and still have a "phone without compromise", as it sayson the box?

-Sav

Unknown said...

Since it doesn't support other languages yet,
Is it possible to spel your text?

Sjoerd Heeringa said...

ROFL... it doesn't support the android musicplayer????
It doesn't support the standard android clock?
Since 1995 I can dial my contacts by voice! What a piece of crap!

Unknown said...

@Shuki, are you completely stupid? The only reason why the music is linked to external app is because companies such as pandora utilise voice actions as part of their advertisement. Think of this as a profit or business making oppotunity for google. You said it yourself, 1995 dialing contacts are old. Hence googles new innovation is using the latest technology and find music via the net!
As for the alarm clock, just wait out, they're still testing the software throughly for it to be stable, so idiots like you would stop complaining and respects the engineers at the android team.

Martin said...

Suggestion: Modify Gmail filters to allow a mail to be automaticly moved to task thus "Note to self" automaticly becomes a task.

Unknown said...

To search for local music and other stuff, you have to setup Google search to search these places.

Open Google search app then choose: menu, search settings, searchable items. That worked for me on my HTC Desire UK

Unknown said...

Actually, forget my last post. Search was finding music on my phone with voice commands before I activated the full feature set ie. Before I changed voice search to be US English. Still cannot get send text or email to input the contact into the correct place though. Might be an issue with HTC sense?

user said...

can we "listen to" music on our native default music player instead of those other apps?

Unknown said...

I'm sorry, but this is absolute crap. It's a good idea, but I have not heard of anyone except the guy on the video this actually works for.
I say, Call My Wife or Call Jane, and the stupid thing wants to call the university of Cologne every time.
I uninstalled it..it's terrible..and no way to train it that it freaking works.

Unknown said...

alright guys, im guna make a youtube video to show you that it works :)

Matt Jones said...

On the Desire I was getting poor recognition - everything came back as a web search.

To fix this you need to :- menu -> settings -> voice imput/output -> voice recognizer settings -> Change the language to -> english (generic)

This may also be the case for any UK phones. Works a treat now!

Matt

Unknown said...

works great on my desire, everything works fine.

patrick i don't know what you did but everything works great, calling, texting, mailing, navigating, searching etc

Warren Dawkins said...

Spent most of the night comparing Voice Search to Vlingo (on which it is clearly modeled). I've found Voice Search works great with a few major exceptions:

1. Calling, texting and emailing only works with Google contacts not Exchange or Facebook contacts. Is there any way to fix this?

2. "Set alarm for" says it requires the latest version of "Clock" but I can't find this in the Market.

3. Is there any way to upgrade "Listen to" to also work with the built-in Music app?

If you can fix these (or at least #1) then Vlingo doesn't stand a chance.

Tests conducted on original Droid running Android 2.2 and latest updates.

mfk430 said...

This is nice, but why is it so hard to get the commands that require contact names to work right?

For example, if I say "Send text to mom. Call you soon"

It comes up as a text with a blank recipient saying "Mom call you soon"

or "2 Mom call you soon"

But if I click on the recipient field and then say "Mom" it works.

Also, any ETA on when the clock will be updated for "Set an alarm"?

Unknown said...

Nexus one is capable of 720 dpi :) new cyanogen mod 6 rc3, check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsHkEc58aOo

Tony said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

Tony said...

Sorry, this is nowhere near ready for primetime. Results are completely hit or miss.

Also, until it's able to read back and verify what it thinks you said, it's not good for hands free usage. If you have to look at the screen to verify and then hit send it's pretty much useless. I wouldn't trust it at this point.

Unknown said...

Please add voice actions in spanish, you got it all it should not be hard!

Unknown said...

Really should integrate "listen to" with local music app. "Open " an application would be be pretty slick too.

Other than that, I'd say this is a great update. Really cool.

Unknown said...

There needs to be a way to separate search domains.

When I say "call Joe", I DON'T want a google search of the web, I want to search my contacts (people) with "Joe" in the name.

Can this be done?

JRod said...

When is the clock app going to be ready?

wiggy said...

Note to uk residents you need to switch voice input to us English for this to work :)

Daniel said...

I dream I could use it but can't dowload it neither through the website nor with barcode scanning on my HTC wildfire.
I live in Switzerland, does the country matters ??

Unknown said...

It rocks. Even better than the previous speech-to-text capabilities.

Unknown said...

Daniel, Voice Search requires Froyo (Android 2.2). The Wildfire's only at 2.1 until later this summer.

Panagiotis speeking ... said...

Any particular reason this isn't available to Greece? We can speak English too you know!

Dr. Thomas Cristello, D.C. said...

I have been playing with Google Voice actions on my android phone and ran into a problem. I have multiple music apps (Pandora, and DoubleTwist). Obviously Pandora is for streaming, and DT is for my mp3s. If I speak a command to Google Voice like (Listen to ---)It will always open Pandora and create a "radio station" for the band. Is there a way to have the default music player be DT when I as it to "Listen"?

Becca said...

@Dr. Cristello, as of right now, Voice Actions only works with the following music apps: Spotify, Pandora, Rdio, Last.fm and MSpot.

Unknown said...

If you can't find it in the Market its probably because you are running Android 2.1. Either hack(root) your phone and get 2.2 or wait till the update comes out.

vikrant said...

Can we get a voice action where we can spell the word we want? It doesnt have to be an English word, but we would spell it. This would completely eliminate typing.

Thanks. Voice actions rock.

Dexter.

dc said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

John T. Killmar said...

When will Flash Player 10.1 be available on the Android Market?

Greg McKone said...

BlackBerry version please :-)

Steven Kaplan said...

I am using the "Note to Self" action: no one has commented that it sends an e-mail to your G-mail account WITH an attached sound file of the message. Obviously, the complete product has a significant "wow" factor but is still a work in progress.

Unknown said...

Sounds great
But would me much greater if it´s available in austria also
only the voice search... in german like in germany...we speak german too :)

jorvan said...

"listen to..." Opens a youtube search. How do I get it to search my music or pandora?

Ave Wrigley said...

For UK users - the new voice actions are not enabled for UK English users yet, but if you go to Settings -> Voice input & output -> Voice recognizer settings -> Language -> English (US), you can get it to work.