Voice Actions = meh?

[cyber punk]

I just got my 2.2 upgrade and I've been trying out voice actions. They don't seem quite as useful as I had hoped. For example "note to self" launches a window that I have to physically press to launch my email, and then I have to press the phone again to actually send the email. It would be better if: (1) I could say: "Note to self in Evernote: don't forget the milk;" (2) And then the phone would just put the note in Evernote without me needing to press anything else on the phone.

Or another example, (1) I say: "Email Jane: Hey, meet for Happy hour at the usual place? SEND." (2) And the phone sends the message without need for me to press any more buttons.

So basically I would like to pick a third party app to receive the note to self, and I want to minimize button pushing -- it is "voice action" after all! Is there a way to tweak Voice Actions with Tasker so it does more of what I want? Maybe I have to wait for the second generation of voice actions?

 

[urklegrue]

I agree, that kind of defeats the purpose of the thing. I only played with it for a couple of minutes so maybe I'm missing something.

On a funny note, when it got a word wrong I couldn't figure out how to delete it, so first I tried "delete" and it typed out "elite" and then I tried "backspace" and it typed out "sex tape."

 

[JimmyD]

The Google Voice Actions app is getting so much hype, that people are forgetting that there's an app that was introduced into the Market (for ALL versions of Android, not just FroYo...) that does the exact same thing, plus MORE.

Remember? It's called Edwin

Link >> Edwin, Speech-to-Speech - Android app on AppBrain

Edwin demo on YouTube...
[video=youtube;l2GBxwua0PQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2GBxwua0PQ[/video]

Edwin offers a pretty simple concept. Press the microphone and ask it to do something. I asked Edwin to translate “My cat has a nasty looking face.” into French. I asked it what the weather was. I asked it to open Pandora. All these things with just the push of a button. I can see that this may be something very useful while driving as well as a fun novelty. The vocabulary is expanding constantly and this app gets better and better the more you play with it!

Besides what is mentioned in the Droid-Life review above, it does all the same things that Google's Voice Actions does!

ALSO.... Vlingo just became a free app in the Market (it was paid before) and it does similar things... but actually not as well as Voice Actions.

Link >> Vlingo: Words to Action - Android app on AppBrain

Vlingo demo on YouTube
[video=youtube;3KCybkW_-FY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KCybkW_-FY[/video]

I hope this helps!

 

[icculusX]

I agree, that kind of defeats the purpose of the thing. I only played with it for a couple of minutes so maybe I'm missing something.

On a funny note, when it got a word wrong I couldn't figure out how to delete it, so first I tried "delete" and it typed out "elite" and then I tried "backspace" and it typed out "sex tape."

Hahaha don't ya love mess-ups like that. I use the speach to text while I am driving to say little things in SMS, and boy did it get me in trouble with my girl a few times. Ill say somehting nice and simple and it sends "I am going out with her till late"... then i get WHAT?!?! haha

 

[Tanknspank]

I use vlingo now, and it is way more sensitive and accurate than voice actions were. Never tried edwin through...

Sent from my Droid

 

[eliassami5]

if you have used voice to text long enough you would realize that they have eliminated almost all button pushing. So if you can find your phone, power it on, unlock it, navigate to the search icon, and long press on it to initiate voice to text, then you can surely press the "send" button once the text has been transcribed.

There are often mistakes in the text, so just automatically sending the message after it has been transcribed would not be very smart.

 

[cyber punk]

if you have used voice to text long enough you would realize that they have eliminated almost all button pushing. So if you can find your phone, power it on, unlock it, navigate to the search icon, and long press on it to initiate voice to text, then you can surely press the "send" button once the text has been transcribed.

There are often mistakes in the text, so just automatically sending the message after it has been transcribed would not be very smart.

Meh. I would rather just re-route the camera button to initiate voice search, speak, and have the thing obey. Eventually, there will be something like that. I want my very own pet AI!

 

[rjax]

if you have used voice to text long enough you would realize that they have eliminated almost all button pushing. So if you can find your phone, power it on, unlock it, navigate to the search icon, and long press on it to initiate voice to text, then you can surely press the "send" button once the text has been transcribed.

There are often mistakes in the text, so just automatically sending the message after it has been transcribed would not be very smart.

Meh. I would rather just re-route the camera button to initiate voice search, speak, and have the thing obey. Eventually, there will be something like that. I want my very own pet AI!

I can help you with the first two items -- just download Button Shortcut from the Market and assign voice search to the camera button.

 

[dan j]

I can help you with the first two items -- just download Button Shortcut from the Market and assign voice search to the camera button.

How smart is it? Could you do "short" press for voice search and "long" press for the camera?

Thanks

 

[DJTURNz]

The issue I see with being able to say SEND, is what if you are saying something else? "Go to the end of the road and turn right"
Might come as "got to the " [sent]

 

[ViciousCircle]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't want the app to actually send until I've had a chance to review what it transcribed.

I remember back when voice to text and voice commands were in their early stages, one of the phrases that was often used as an example of how something could be misheard/mistranscribed was "Recognize speech". It often came out as "Wreck a nice beach".