Voice Dial Really Doesn't seem to work

[johirsh]

I look forward to my Droid from Verizon.. unfortunately the Voice Dial appears disfunctional. If i go "Call Joe Blow" I get "Calll Joe Blow at home' Call Joe Blow on mobile... choices on the screen... ok I could live with that as my Razr sometimes had difficulty, but I MUST PHYSICALLY SELECT THE CORRECT CHOICE.. so much for hands free... what is even worse is that if I say Dial 800-555-1212 it also prompts me for phsyical confirmation. For a phone in a hands free state this is worthless.

Is this something that software will correct in the future??? I am trying to decide whether to send this sucker back in my 3 day window

thanks for any tips or ideas

 

[Ivanhead]

It totally sucks, or they don't have a clue what a Southern accent is. Also it does NOT work on blue tooth, MAJOR problem, which I hope they will fix.

 

[galt]

Did you try "Call Joe Blow at Home' ??
or "Call Joe Blow Mobile" ?

 

[Ivanhead]

I said call joe blow? Nothing. I said call Mr Winky, nothing, It won't reconize anything that I say. The google search is just as bad. Interesting Talk to Me a translation program works perfectly! It a free program and damn good!

 

[johirsh]

I would go back and try saying what it found and it still gives me options.. what is REALLY frustrating is that i say DIAL 800 555 1212 if I am lucking AND it doesn't come back with mutiple options... it still want me to physically confirm the number by touching the screen... yes sir mr police man I have a handsfree device that still needs fingers

 

[johirsh]

Ivan... I can at least get it to find names,,,,,but i always have to go into the Voice Dial Program.... if I use the voice command from the search icon (one of the list ways to dial in the instructions) oh boyyyy do I get some strange results if i get anything

 

[cc16177]

I don't know if you guys are mumbling or something but my voice dial seems to work absolutely perfect for me... I can say "Directions to Best buy in portage michigan" (because that's where i live) and it will pull up GPS directions every single time. I even tried "Dial 4 3 2 4 4 5 6" (which is not actually the phone number i was trying to dial) and it asked me if that's what I wanted to do.

 

[cc16177]

Oh and as far as calling someone goes I just say "Call Joseph Mobile" and if there is only one joseph in my contacts it says "Dial? / No" on the popup and if there are multiple then it gives me a choice of which one.

 

[Ivanhead]

Like I said in first post, it doesn't understand Southern. Mid West yes, Southern no. Moto? Located in Chicago, guess that's where they programed it!

 

[ADSNOVA]

I look forward to my Droid from Verizon.. unfortunately the Voice Dial appears disfunctional. If i go "Call Joe Blow" I get "Calll Joe Blow at home' Call Joe Blow on mobile... choices on the screen... ok I could live with that as my Razr sometimes had difficulty, but I MUST PHYSICALLY SELECT THE CORRECT CHOICE.. so much for hands free... what is even worse is that if I say Dial 800-555-1212 it also prompts me for phsyical confirmation. For a phone in a hands free state this is worthless.

Is this something that software will correct in the future??? I am trying to decide whether to send this sucker back in my 3 day window

thanks for any tips or ideas

I have a Plantronics bluetooth which easily links to the Droid. However, the linking message states that the link is "audio only". Since the Bluetooth works on my old MOT-Q smart phone I had to assume that I had a problem with the Droid.
Long storage short -- Verizon reps tried for hours to get it to work when finally Tech service informed us that the Droid does not at this time respond to spoken directions for the phone! They could not sell me a new gadget that wood, SINCE THE PHONE DOES NOT HAVE THAT FEATURE!!!!! This makes the Droid an interesting toy, but it certainly is not a serious "PHONE" device, especially where hands-free is demanded. This is, in my opinion a fatal flaw. If Verizon, a phone company, cannot even insist that the gadget be, first and foremost, a real phone - why should I buy it??? Answer, I didn't -- Saturday am, as soon as possible after after my Friday, opening day purchase, it went back to Verizon.

 

[johirsh]

I too discovered the fine print about the bluetooth ear piece there is a note "to be added soon".. In this day and age of increased safety it is hard to believe that Verizon would even attempt to market a phone that requires physical interaction with EVERY PHONE CALL..The service people at Verizon just assumed that was normal. Talking to motorola (whose call center sounded like it was in China with some one shouting in the background every few seconds ) also seemed to think this is not a problem I was hoping it was a software bug, but it appears to be an OS issue. I am sort of hoping that some one might at least come up with an app the could voice dial/ Right now I have a cripple tha can browse the web.

 

[Christine]

The google voice search should improve as more and more people use it. Hopefully if more people with thicker accents use the search function, it will become more accurate.

 

[cc16177]

Just to be clear, and I am not belittling your problems with the device at all, are you complaining that you cannot use voice dial through the bluetooth headset?

 

[johirsh]

Its amazing how Motorola can release a phone who voice recogntion is WORSE then its previous phones... oh excuse me, it a new google product. There is no mechanism for it to "learn" or to be 'trained".. it appears they have no comprehension of the whole concept of a voice activate phone. My near to 300 phone can't match a $50 5 yold relic

 

[Ivanhead]

voice dialing via bluetooth does NOT work on any driod. Yes I am complaining.

 

[Droidood]

Just to be clear, and I am not belittling your problems with the device at all, are you complaining that you cannot use voice dial through the bluetooth headset?

Quit being lazy and read the damn thread. They're complaining that it requires physical interaction even when the phone recognizes everything...

Bluetooth issue was known before.

 

[johirsh]

1. Voice Dialing/Commands don't work with BT headset (this is acknowledged in fine print in documentation to be solve at a later date)

2) Voice Dial/Recognition appears to have provblems with voice recogntion unless you are from what appears to the mid west

3) Voice Dial doesn't dial... it just brings up a screen so you can physically chose the number you want to dial, ig it recognized

4) If you try to dial via the goodle search icon (a suggested alternative) the unit happly appears to do a google search on the number and adds THESE results to your option to dial

 

[ginigma]

The google voice search should improve as more and more people use it. Hopefully if more people with thicker accents use the search function, it will become more accurate.

Why do you think this? The voice recognition is done on the phone, not on any Google server. Google is not saving all the search information and uploading to their servers. I did not give them permission to use my bandwidth for their purposes.

 

[Christine]

I saw that on several reviews before the phone was released, but maybe the reviews were wrong. Sorry if I'm just passing on wrong information.

 

[johirsh]

I saw that on several reviews before the phone was released, but maybe the reviews were wrong. Sorry if I'm just passing on wrong information.

these probaby were "releases" not reviewsand they probably said that there would be voice dialing , both normal and BT..

the motorola web site DOES say that BT is a recognized issue and is on the plate to fix... no indications that voice dial is felt to be a problem

 

[Christine]

Also, the VP of Engineering said the following, which seems to imply that google has access to our voice searches:

"We launched it on the iPhone and have seen a 15% jump in accuracy because, as more people use it, we collect more data and our accuracy gets better.

 

[johirsh]

i see what you are saying... if that is the case.. there is esseniallu MAJOR privacy issues and use of bandwidth... when you go on line to use google u defacto give them rights to retain data... i sure as heck didn't plan to give google any rights to anything I do on my phone..

 

[Christine]

If I'm wrong, there are reviewers on gadgetry sites who are wrong as well. The other thing that makes me think this is the case is that the voice search didn't work for me in the basement of the library today. I believe it said "network error." (But I'm high as a kite on medication for pneumonia, pleurisy, and tracheitis right now, so who knows?)

 

[johirsh]

OK in the extremely well written documentation.... sorry for the sarcasim there is reference to TWO ways to voice dial... one is from the voice dial icon on the desktop .. the second is using google search and selecting the micophone and ... in the second it clearly calls home .. ( i have gotten connectin down too).. in that case it is learning, listening and happily invading your privacy...

in the end even if it "learns" what we are saying it will still sit their like the village idiot it is until you physicall butt slap the keyboard to confirm the selection... so much for hands free PLUS all your personal information is laid open hmmm

 

[ginigma]

Christine, thanks for the link. I think there are huge privacy issues at stake here. I guess that Google has just assimilated all aspects of our lives now.