Well … Vlingo!
I’m not quite sure what to say really. But it is impressive - at least, I think so. It has certainly cut down the typing.
I have blogged before about how various iPhone apps were available to enable a user to use voice to interact with software on his or her phone. For some time I have been speaking to ReQall to make diary appointments and shopping lists, and Evernote to (amongst other things) record miscellaneous notes on the hop. I also occasionally used the Google voice search software with mixed success. And then, of course, there’s always ipadio for phlogging.
What Vlingo does it take some of the most common interactions people would want to make with their iPhones (dialing contacts, texting, emailing, web searching, finding locations on maps, and updating social networks) and enable all these functions to be executed either entirely, or almost entirely, by voice.
Voice Dialing Any Contact
I used to have a phone that enabled me to say the names of a restricted number of people (6) that it would recognise and then dial, but I never found it to be very successful and abandoned the practice after several mistaken dials. What Vlingo does is call anyone in your address book. You just press the Vlingo button, then say, “Call Peter Smith” and it does. If Peter Smith has more than one number you can specify, “Call Peter Smith mobile”, “Call Peter Smith work”. If Vlingo is confident it has the correct number it will dial automatically, inform you what it is doing, and give you time to cancel the call. If it is unsure of the instruction it will present a list of possible numbers that you can select from. I have found it to be very accurate indeed, and in a fortnight’s worth of usage, have only had to cancel an automatic dial once.
Entering Text for Texting, Emails, and Social Networking
The more you speak to Vlingo, the more it learns about your pronunciation. When you speak text (and punctuation) it will quickly transcribe it for you. A lot of the time it will be mostly accurate or perfect. When it isn’t, there are three ways of editing what Vlingo offers. If you click on a problem word, alternative suggestions will appear at the bottom of the screen. In many cases the suggestions will include your intended word and clicking on it will replace the problem text. There is also a microphone button that allows you to re-record any part of the text, or make additions. And of course, you can always manually edit the text.
I know that the above looks cumbersome, but to me, it is still proving to be quicker and easier than typing out the full message.
The commands are simple. After you have pressed the Vlingo button you speak your commands and message:
“Twitter update - Message - Just testing Vlingo.”
“Email Peter Smith - Subject - Finance - Message - Hi Peter, please could you let me have ….”
“Text Peter Smith - Message - Hi, how are you?”
You can update Twitter and Facebook. The messages are presented for checking and then you just press the send button. The emails appear in the opened iPhone email programme. Once checked, you just press send. With texting the message appears for checking, you then press Next and this opens the iPhone SMS programme. Your message has been copied into the phone’s memory. Once the SMS programme opens you tap the blank message space and paste the message into it. The recipient has already been selected. You then just press send.
Two things just for the record. First, because it is American, it doesn’t recognise “full stop”, you have to say “period”. The email and text options are only available in the paid for version.
Find Anything
You may have been used to using the voice search function in the iPhone Google app. Again Vlingo takes this further. You can say, “Search iPhone Apps”. However, you can also say, “Google the meaning of life”, “Bing San Tropez”, or “Yahoo weather in Cambridge”. And the “Find” command will search and locate in Google Maps. ”Find Peterborough” will present you with a map of Peterborough, and “Find cafes in Peterborough” will present you with a map of Peterborough with red pins on all the cafes, and a blue pin showing you your location.
The move from keypad to touchscreen was an important step. Vlingo shows that the move from keypad and touchscreen to voice is already partly here.
