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Hello devs!
It brought to my attention today that the Voice Dialer in the Android platform is open source and can therefore be modified. I'd like to point you all to this topic:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=568381
As you may know, the Voice Dialer is one of the worst put together packages on the Android platform due to its complete lack of functionality in the context it is supposed to be used in. Whoever released a Voice Dialer that requires user input should be fired IMMEDIATELY.
Anyway, my request is for someone to modify the Voice Dialer such that when a person says something like: "Call John on his cell" the Voice Dialer will AUDIBLY prompt the user something like: "Did you say... John cell?" to which the user will respond: "Yes". There is a text-to-speech module available for developers so I don't think that this should be too hard to do. If the Voice Dialer can prompt users by text on a screen with options, it shouldn't be too hard to alter that such that someone repeats the options and waits for a response by voice instead of touch.
Any help would be appreciated! I would definitely be on this project if I knew how to code in Java. Unfortunately, I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree, not one in Computer Engineering.
Yeah I agree - I wanted something similar, but it seems like someone is already working on it. Check out TopVoiceControl on the market. It will automatically dial if only one match is found, and you change a setting to enable this. Think that's the best out there at the moment though, but don't know when it was last updated so may be a dead project...
snesreviews said:
Yeah I agree - I wanted something similar, but it seems like someone is already working on it. Check out TopVoiceControl on the market. It will automatically dial if only one match is found, and you change a setting to enable this. Think that's the best out there at the moment though, but don't know when it was last updated so may be a dead project...
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Thanks, that's interesting. I haven't installed it yet, but people's feedback isn't promising: "still looking for a voice dial app as good as wm voice commander..this require me to still select stuff on the screen..dangerous when drivg".
Have they done or are they planning any recent updates?
Zoide_ said:
Thanks, that's interesting. I haven't installed it yet, but people's feedback isn't promising: "still looking for a voice dial app as good as wm voice commander..this require me to still select stuff on the screen..dangerous when drivg".
Have they done or are they planning any recent updates?
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Are you asking if Google is working on any updates or if the Dev of this app is working on updates?
I don't think Google is working on anything. That's why I'm trying desperately to get people aware of the issue and having them star the issue over on the Android issues board.
So, no devs willing to take a bite?
rickytenzer said:
Are you asking if Google is working on any updates or if the Dev of this app is working on updates?
I don't think Google is working on anything. That's why I'm trying desperately to get people aware of the issue and having them star the issue over on the Android issues board.
So, no devs willing to take a bite?
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No, no, I'm referring to the third-party app on the Android Market, TopVoiceControl. I wonder if there are any plans to improve upon it because the feedback is pretty poor.
I'm actually looking for something to develop on android, just to get a feel for the SDK etc, but I don't want to go into competition with someone else who is already doing the same thing if it's currently in active development (which it appears to be: http://twitter.com/TopiXoft).
If you launch TopVoiceControl, then hit menu, you'll get the option to "Act on single result" which means if the voice recognition only returns one result, it will automatically dial. If there is more than one match (as it is in most cases), it won't.
I have confidence that it's going places, but this guy seems to be working on multiple projects so I'm sure it's a balancing act .
Just received an email with the Vlingo beta apk. I have not tried it yet but since this forum has helped me a ton, I figured I might be able to return the favor. Below are the instructions directly from the email:
Installing Vlingo for Android
1. Check the Unknown Sources item in Settings > Applications
This is required since Vlingo is not yet in the Android Market
Unknown apps screen
2. Open the Browser and browse to *********
NOTE: Please do not share this link with anyone else
3. When the file is finished downloading click on it and then click the Install button
4. Click the Open button when you see the Application Installed message
Add Vlingo to your Home Screen
1. Press and hold in an empty space on your home screen
2. Click Widgets (or sometimes it will be called Android Widgets)
Pick widget
3. Scroll down and click Vlingo
Add Vlingo to your keyboard
Speak anywhere you can type
1. Open Settings > Language & Keyboard
2. Check Vlingo Keyboard
Enable keyboard
3. Press and hold in any text box on your phone and click Input Method
4. Click on Vlingo Keyboard
Setup keyboard
5. You can now press the microphone icon (Speak button) to speak to any text box.
Known Issues
* Vlingo requires Android version 2.0 or higher to work
* While Vlingo should work on most Android 2.0+ devices, Vlingo has only been fully tested on the Google Nexus One and the Verizon Droid
Thanks!
This is a really great App. I really missed not having this when I switched over from the iphone.
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you are aware that the default AOSP keyboard has this option right? as well as the newest HTC ime keyboard?, and the latest better keyboard?
dmc971989 said:
you are aware that the default AOSP keyboard has this option right? as well as the newest HTC ime keyboard?, and the latest better keyboard?
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Yeah, the default keyboard does do text to type, but Vlingo lets you open apps, call people and a lot more stuff. It is pretty cool.
The Vlingo voice recognition seems to work better and faster then the stock stuff.
What I really like is the voice search widget, it works really well. You can use commands like "find wal mart in Denver Colorado" and it will give you all the results on a map with details and you can call etc.
Works better then the other apps available IMO.
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jpeepers said:
What I really like is the voice search widget, it works really well. You can use commands like "find wal mart in Denver Colorado" and it will give you all the results on a map with details and you can call etc.
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Click to collapse
The voice search that's built into the navigator app does that as well. I can say "Navigate to Wal Mart", it brings me up a list of Wal Marts in the area, and fires up google navigation to guide me there. It's also location aware, so if I simply do a voice search on "Marriott", it brings up the google result for the nearest Marriott hotel to my current location.
Another cool little app is Choice Dialer. It's very good at voice dialing, but it also lets you do things like "Schedule an event for next Wednesday at 2 PM", or "Play music by Motley Crue"....
Definitely going to give this app a try. It'll take A LOT to get me to give up Swype as my regular keyboard.
Regardless of whether I end up using this particular app or not, with all the laws being passed about cell phone use while driving, voice recognition is no longer just a "neat toy", it's becoming a necessity. So I applaud anyone and everyone who is working to advance the state of the art in this field.
I have not been able to install it. They don't specify if there is an Android version requirement, which I am guessing there is. I am running 1.5.
Ceger
Ceger said:
I have not been able to install it. They don't specify if there is an Android version requirement, which I am guessing there is. I am running 1.5.
Ceger
Click to expand...
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Says right in the OP that it requires Android 2.0 or higher.
subliminalurge said:
Definitely going to give this app a try. It'll take A LOT to get me to give up Swype as my regular keyboard.
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+1 to that. I love Swype. Best app I have dled by far!
Finally got a chance to play around with this app this morning.
Observations so far... The keyboard seems pretty good, although I won't be replacing Swype with it. Voice accuracy seems solid. It doesn't handle "Navigate to" very well. If I say "Navigate to Wal Mart" it just brings up nearby wal marts in google maps. On the built in voice search, it fires up navigation and handles the request properly. Given that this is still a beta, it could be that they just haven't tweaked it to take advantage of Android's capabilities yet.
Seems about the same speed as google's voice search.
But now the deal breaker. I've been getting frequent "unable to connect to server" errors this morning. I've verified that my data connection is working fine. This may be a beta, but they have versions for other handsets that are in production, so the beta thing is no excuse for their servers being down.
All things considered, this seems like a solid effort, but I don't see where it brings very many advantages to the table in comparison to the built in voice search. And if their servers aren't reliable, I can't really justify putting it into daily use no matter how good it is.
swype keyboard for life, but this vlingo could go somewhere, my only problem is, it didnt give me the widget.
i uninstalled and re-installed. nothing.
keyofhappy said:
swype keyboard for life, but this vlingo could go somewhere, my only problem is, it didnt give me the widget.
i uninstalled and re-installed. nothing.
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That's odd. The widget's working fine for me.
In truth, it doesn't really add much. You can get nearly the same result by just putting the app icon on your home screen. The widget does eliminate one extra button press, but for some unknown reason they made it 4 spaces wide.
Not enough functionality to justify losing that much screen real estate, IMHO.
EDIT: Ah, you can set it to come up when you long press the search button. Accomplishes the same thing as the widget, and doesn't use up 4 spaces on your screen.
Ooh, another annoyance...
They use yahoo rather than google for searches. No place to change it in the settings.
Another observation...
Google's voice recognition cuts me off after a fairly short time. Vlingo has let me compose some pretty lengthy emails all at one shot, whereas creating the same message with the stock voice recognition required me to do it in 4 or 5 chunks.
This almost makes writing email on my phone easier than my desktop with the full sized keyboard.
Do you have to be using it as the keyboard, or can it be used as a stand alone talk to text, or for opening programs and what not?
Negrito said:
Do you have to be using it as the keyboard, or can it be used as a stand alone talk to text, or for opening programs and what not?
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You do not have to use the keyboard part of it. Everything else will work just the same without using its keyboard.
Mike
crazymike1234 said:
2. Open the Browser and browse to *********
NOTE: Please do not share this link with anyone else
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol nice
10chars
regaw_leinad said:
lol nice
10chars
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Hey...It said do not share the link. It didn't say anything about the file
Mike
Yet another feature of Android that is only in webs' wet dreams. After overall year after announcement, still no API's for the mic, amazing.
crazymike1234 said:
You do not have to use the keyboard part of it. Everything else will work just the same without using its keyboard.
Mike
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Cool. Got it installed and played with it a bit. Me likey! Thanks for sharing.
Hey - Not sure where to post this.
Anyway, does anyone else have problems with the voice search on Android? I have the HD2 with an Android ROM.
I boot up Google Navigation and use the voice search option, the box comes up and I speak, for example: "Keele University". Now, I have a pretty deep voice and im not the cleanest of speakers, but its mad!
I'll get "Navigate to Hello", or something stupid :| Now I know this isnt perfect but damn, how is "Keele University" close to "Hello"? Or, "Wynbunbury"... "Navigate to ocsh".
So yeah, is it just me or does it really suck atm =/
Coming from an HTC Tilt 2 WinMo phone I really expected "upgrading" to an android phone was going to blow my socks off. I used voice control for everything on my Tilt 2, playing music, making calls,.........Mind you my Inspire does meet or exceed my expectations in a bunch of areas.
But, I don't understand why Microsoft can have a voice control app that works and Android/Google just can't seem to get it right. I can't find an app for my Inspire that even comes close to Microsoft Voice Command. I would pay a developer at least $10 for a voice controller that works. Looking through posts it would appear that I'm not the only one with this complaint. Can anyone point me in the direction of a voice app that works?
Google seems to work well for me - especially transcribing sms or emails...what exactly is it not doing for you?
DPLOY said:
Google seems to work well for me - especially transcribing sms or emails...what exactly is it not doing for you?
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I don't do any transcribing. I do use my phone via bluetooth to play music. I could tell MS voice control to play an album and it was accurate 99% of the time. I can't find anything for android that works. I also used MS voice control to make phone calls via bluetooth while driving, was also pretty accurate. I have tried voice dial for android and in my opinion the software is almost useless. Basically almost all the stuff considered "hands free" except maybe transcribing sms or emails is like beta software or broken.
If I was capable of writing the software I bet I could make a ton of money. If you google it you will find plenty of people looking for the same thing. Microsoft should port their software to android and put it on the market place.
cokid said:
Coming from an HTC Tilt 2 WinMo phone I really expected "upgrading" to an android phone was going to blow my socks off. I used voice control for everything on my Tilt 2, playing music, making calls,.........Mind you my Inspire does meet or exceed my expectations in a bunch of areas.
But, I don't understand why Microsoft can have a voice control app that works and Android/Google just can't seem to get it right. I can't find an app for my Inspire that even comes close to Microsoft Voice Command. I would pay a developer at least $10 for a voice controller that works. Looking through posts it would appear that I'm not the only one with this complaint. Can anyone point me in the direction of a voice app that works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can check out vlingo. it does a lot. i dont remember if it plays music etc.
I was thinking about removing the hole bixby crap and use the Bixby button to do something else ? what do you think ?
Good ideea! How?
It's entirely up to you. Everybody will have a different opinion and there will be plenty of people that will enjoy using Bixby. I'll probably use it sometimes.
Everybody has different needs. I for example, don't use my phone to purchase anything and I don't have a need for Samsung Pay or Android Pay. Never will and I'll never understand the point of it. That's useless bloatware for me. It's much quicker and easier to use my contactless debit card.
You'll have to decide if it's useful or not to you.
saifullah90 said:
I was thinking about removing the hole bixby crap and use the Bixby button to do something else ? what do you think ?
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Yup my thoughts exactly, ditch the crap and make use of the button for something that might actually be useful, although I am not yet sure what (if the virtual home button irritates me then perhaps use it as a home button, or maybe a recent apps button). Don't know if you can do that without a custom rom, I suspect not as Samsung probably wants to force it on people.
ewokuk said:
Yup my thoughts exactly, ditch the crap and make use of the button for something that might actually be useful, although I am not yet sure what (if the virtual home button irritates me then perhaps use it as a home button, or maybe a recent apps button). Don't know if you can do that without a custom rom, I suspect not as Samsung probably wants to force it on people.
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that the spirit we will probably find a good use out of it.
Its just samsung take on google. It will probably just be more straight forward. It does the same thing..google translate uses the camera to live translate words.
You can google voice to set alarms etc...
I might use it might not its stuff phones have been doing for a while.
Sounds good
saifullah90 said:
I was thinking about removing the hole bixby crap and use the Bixby button to do something else ? what do you think ?
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Click to collapse
Google Assistant is already useful, bixby is just another waste of space imo
I just want to delete bixby and I don't even own one yet
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
I'm sure it will be pretty useless for most of us, but I can see the thinking behind it. It'll be interesting to see if they improve it as time goes on.
Bixby can suck it! I'm going to deactivate that bloat asap.
It seems like voice assistance is being marketed as the future. Personally I don't see myself using it. I'm also wondering how many people actually use Google Assistant and Siri.
Edit: Rereading that last sentence, it seems like I'm questioning the numbers, but I really am interested to know how many people actually use it and for more complex things than checking the weather or asking funny questions.
Yeah I dont see it as a feature I would use. But my understanding is you cant remap the Bixby key to anything.
The main thing for me is the cards part of bixby. That's what actually launches when you press the button. I can put weather, reminders, calenders all right there so I can see it at a moment's notice. That way I don't have to put home screen widgets or ongoing notifications for those.
I think they want to make bixy like from iron man, where he talks to his ai, who is now an avenger. If bixy learns like they say i think itll be cool. Like bixy watch and learn me doing this, learning....then it can do what ever i show it
Dat Noob said:
It seems like voice assistance is being marketed as the future. Personally I don't see myself using it. I'm also wondering how many people actually use Google Assistant and Siri.
Edit: Rereading that last sentence, it seems like I'm questioning the numbers, but I really am interested to know how many people actually use it and for more complex things than checking the weather or asking funny questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I honestly didn't think I would use Google Assistant as much however was I wrong.... I'll try to explain how it's useful on the pixel.
1st... The assistant kind of works in the background through other apps like photos, I was rotating some old downloaded photos because they were sideways however I didn't finish, next day when I first went in my photos the assistant randomly notified me of all the pics that were sideways and asked did I want it to rotate them which I clicked yes. Also the google cards bring news, sports, stock etc based off things you normally search like if I've been googling Samsung S8, I will start to see news, info regarding the S8 each day on my daily feed/ cards (Hard to explain but it's very convenient because it will show whatever you've been interested in such as new games, cars you've look at etc).
2nd... There's actually using the assistant voice features which are absurdly accurate even when I misstate a word. The assistant learns who people are so I don't always have to say names instead I can say call my cousin, mom, wife etc at home, on speaker phone. I can also say go to bestbuy.com or any other website. Set my alarm for 10am, add bananas to my grocery list, remind me to take out the trash when I get home, play a specific song on YouTube or in music player. All of this is not only accurate but considerable faster than doing it manually. In addition you don't need a physical button to activate the assistant, you just say "ok Google" and it knows your voice even if your phone was locked so it's truly hands free. As I'm getting ready for work I ask "how is the traffic to work". A few minutes ago I was just streaming a movie from my phone to my tv and got up to get my clothes out the washer so I told the assistant to pause video, then resume when I sat back down.
3rd.... I honestly felt Bixby functioned a little slow in relation to Google Assistant/ Siri however it's still kind of beta until the phone is released. I can see where Samsung's is trying to bridge the gap while also trying to get their foot in the door but only time will tell if it will flop or stand however I can definitely see voice assistants becoming a bigger footprint in all phones.
Dat Noob said:
It seems like voice assistance is being marketed as the future. Personally I don't see myself using it. I'm also wondering how many people actually use Google Assistant and Siri.
Edit: Rereading that last sentence, it seems like I'm questioning the numbers, but I really am interested to know how many people actually use it and for more complex things than checking the weather or asking funny questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought I wouldn't use it either but I'm warming up to it - primarily for replying to text's while driving, getting directions, finding restaurants, etc. Pretty handy in that respect and for me, it's more accurate than my typing on the screen keypad, which I find horrible to use (Samsung's keyboard).
But the point is google now/ assistant does this already. This video below is a perfect response to bixby.
By the way, you can disable bixby and you can reasssign google now or google assistant (or any other app you want) to the bixby button.
https://youtu.be/xfG15i_uQvc
Totally Agree, there was no point in Samsung spending time & resources on something that already exists and has since 2012 i believe.
But great that it can be remapped as now that button becomes useful.......[emoji3]
Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Unfortunately from the hands on videos I've seen, you can't remap the button. Not sure if you would even be able to disable it in software without root.
Remap Bixby Button!
Use "All In One Gestures" App to remap the Bixby Button. Search YouTube!