10 Smartphone Apps You Can Talk To
Voice recognition may finally get the recognition it deserves.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/blt00b07fe1d6188884/64cb51bda030502a3129572a/hound.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Typing on a mobile phone is not fun. It works, but it's not very fast or accurate, particularly if you're thumb-typing or on the move.
Talking works better. Phones were designed for talking, after all. But many of us still don't feel comfortable addressing our phones directly. A 2014 Northstar Research study commissioned by Google surveyed 1,400 Americans and found that "only one-quarter of adults speak to their phones when in the company of others." It's as if we're ashamed to be caught talking with our imaginary phone friend.
Among teens, there's less stigma. Fifty-seven percent of them will query their phones when among other people. So, expect voice interaction to become more common as the population ages and people become accustomed to the idea.
Speech recognition is approaching its idealized depiction in science fiction. In 2011, Microsoft researchers considered an error rate of 18.5% "astonishing." At Google I/O last month, Sundar Pichai, SVP of product at Google, said the speech recognition error rate for Google's software had reached 8%, down from 23% in 2013.
The technology is certainly usable today, even if we tend to use it for specific types of queries, such as initiating calls and asking for directions. For example, only 9% of adults use voice search to check movie times, according to the Northstar Research study.
Ongoing technological advancements suggest voice interaction with software-based assistants will become even easier and more useful as companies create code that not only recognizes speech, but can also interpret complex questions.
SoundHound recently invited beta testers to an app called Hound, currently available on Android and soon on iOS, that attempts to turn speech recognition into meaning recognition. As with the Google app and Siri, Hound can recognize when a query refers to a previous query, as when the word "there" in the query, "Is there a seafood restaurant near there?" refers to a prior question about a location.
Hound appears to be particularly adept at figuring out how to interpret queries with multiple parameters, like this one: "Show me four- or five-star hotels in Seattle for three nights starting on Friday between a $150 and $200 dollars a night."
Or this one: "What is the mortgage on a $600,000 home using an interest rate of 4% over a 30-year period, with a down payment of $120,000."
Google can recognize these words and point you to a list of mortgage sites, but Hound will present detailed mortgage calculation figures as an answer. For the kinds of data and queries that Hound understands, Hound offers something approaching voice-based programming -- you're supplying data to a known function.
In the years to come, with speech recognition nearly a solved problem, the focus will be on improving the interpretation of meaning. And, once your devices understand your intention as well as your words, the possibilities of voice-based interaction become much more interesting.
You don't have to wait that long. Here are 10 voice apps worth trying out now.
Siri's main advantage at the moment is being wired to the iPhone's home button. Otherwise, it's more or less comparable to Google Voice Search and Microsoft Cortana. But Apple's virtual assistant is expected to play more of a role in home automation once Apple releases the next version of Apple TV. Apple may provide more details at its developer conference on June 8, but the company isn't expected to ship the revised Apple TV soon.
Google Voice Search is part of the Google app for iOS and Android, and is also available through Google Chrome. The software can be set to listen for "Ok Google" as a trigger phrase, so it will convert the words that follow into a search query. For fun, try using Tasker and AutoVoice on Android to create a custom trigger phrase.
Amazon Echo has some disadvantages over the apps from Apple, Google, and Microsoft that have a direct line to your digital life. It doesn't know about your email or calendar, but it can buy a song on Amazon on your behalf. It's a promising attempt to add a voice interface to smart home devices. It should get even better over time.
Microsoft's Cortana can hold her own against Apple or Google voice technology. Each company's system has its own strengths and weaknesses. And soon, Android and iOS users will be able to try Cortana without a Windows device.
Google Now builds upon Google Voice Search to provide a virtual assistance service using voice and visual elements. Though it's primarily focused on timely notifications, it can be commanded using Voice Actions. At Google I/O in May, Google announced Google Now on Tap, a way to prompt Google Now to consider the app you're using and to use that information to make a relevant suggestion.
Speaktoit Assistant can interact with a variety of services, including Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Evernote, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Wikipedia, Amazon, and Gmail. It can, among other things, update your Facebook status, send email, connect a call, or play music. It works in English, Danish, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, and Spanish.
Speaktoit has also integrated its technology with Twilio, a cloud-based telephony platform, so developers can create apps that allow users to verbally request a reservation with OpenTable, for example.
Add speech recognition to translation technology and you get a universal translator. If only it were that easy. Sonico Mobile's iTranslate will let you converse with another (very patient) person who doesn't speak your language. It's fairly amazing, even if it's not flawless, and it's also a bit awkward. Of course, Google's Translate app can manage the same sort of challenge. But it's worth checking out.
Samsung's answer to Google Voice Search is S Voice. Samsung doesn't quite have the mindshare that Google does for voice recognition, but it appears to be willing to use its home field advantage to make S Voice more functional on its S6 than Google's technology is.
Samsung's answer to Google Voice Search is S Voice. Samsung doesn't quite have the mindshare that Google does for voice recognition, but it appears to be willing to use its home field advantage to make S Voice more functional on its S6 than Google's technology is.
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like