Voice Actions

[snapcase]

So I was watching TV, and playing with my phone, and saw a commercial that mentioned how you can launch certain apps and do certain actions via voice commands. I had forgotten about that frankly, and have only used it to navigate before. So I tried to launch a song. No go.

So, after a very brief google search, I found this:
Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android - Official Google Mobile Blog

I updated the voice search app (even though it didn't show up in market without the direct link), and tried again to launch a song. Again, no go.

Apparently it only works with online radio apps like Pandora. It doesn't work with the Music player that comes with the damn phone! I mean seriously, how stupid is it that you can't tell it to play a song from your SD card but you can call up a radio channel (and not actually get to hear that song)?

 

[The_Chief]

Tell me about it! Even my LG Dare had a "play" command. But the Droid is so superior on so many levels that I don't really miss the "play" command. Maybe Gingerbread (or whatever Gingerbread ROM we end up with) will bring it to us. The Voice Search is a big start in the right direction.

 

[riffdex]

So I was watching TV, and playing with my phone, and saw a commercial that mentioned how you can launch certain apps and do certain actions via voice commands. I had forgotten about that frankly, and have only used it to navigate before. So I tried to launch a song. No go.

So, after a very brief google search, I found this:
Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android - Official Google Mobile Blog

I updated the voice search app (even though it didn't show up in market without the direct link), and tried again to launch a song. Again, no go.

Apparently it only works with online radio apps like Pandora. It doesn't work with the Music player that comes with the damn phone! I mean seriously, how stupid is it that you can't tell it to play a song from your SD card but you can call up a radio channel (and not actually get to hear that song)?

Apps have to be written to accept voice commands. Pandora put out an update for their app which allows voice commands to work for it. Now from my understanding, Android Gingerbread is supposed to provide a big revamp for the Music (and media in general) experience. So I would assume they would update the Music app to support voice commands. I'll be waiting to see!

 

[snapcase]

I can't get too enthusiastic about what gingerbread will bring since we won't be getting gingerbread. It's gonna be a while before I'm willing to switch to a new phone too.

 

[riffdex]

I can't get too enthusiastic about what gingerbread will bring since we won't be getting gingerbread. It's gonna be a while before I'm willing to switch to a new phone too.

Actually, I'd imagine we will have Gingerbread before most phones get the actual Gingerbread OTA. The Devs for the droid community are pretty amazing.

Either way, even if we don't get Gingerbread (official release or a custom ROM), if they update the Music app to allow voice commands, I would imagine it would go on the market and you could get it anyways.

 

[The_Chief]

I've been waiting for Google to fix the stock music app so it plays songs in CD order instead of alphabetical order. I have a feeling that Gingerbread won't fix that either... but I keep using ^3 (Cubed) music player and biding my time

 

[UseMyDroid]

I have had other issues with Voice Actions where instead of going to the task it is supposed to do, it keeps going to search the internet! Here is a list of actions and what they are SUPPOSED to do from Google: Voice Actions & Examples : Voice Search - Google Mobile Help

Anyone have any tips on how to make Voice Commands do what they are supposed to? I'm running Froyo 2.2 on a Droid1

 

[UseMyDroid]

Found my answer here: http://androidforums.com/desire-sup...-missing-google-voice-search.html#post1820001
Basically, I needed to clear some data from Voice Search, then re-install Voice Search, now it is working properly!