Google Mobile iPhone app with voice search now available

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
The new version of Google's Mobile iPhone application that includes voice search recognition was made available as a free download on the App Store last night.



"The new Google Mobile App for iPhone makes it possible for you to do a Google web search using only your voice," said Dave Burke, Engineering Manager for Google's mobile team. "Just hold the phone to your ear, wait for the beep, and say what you're looking for."



In addition to allowing users to speak their search queries instead of typing them, the updated app (Free, App Store) includes an Apps Tab that allows you to reorder Google Apps to make it easier to access your favorites.



Google also said there's no longer a need to specify where you are because Google Mobile App now has Search with My Location.



"Search for 'movie showtimes' or 'Mediterranean restaurant' and you'll automatically see results based on your current location," Burke added. "For this to work, Location Services must be enabled on your iPhone and you have to opt-in to let Google Mobile App use your location."



For a bit of the history behind Google's new speak-to-search capabilities, see AppleInsider's report from last Friday.



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 31
    Where am I?
  • Reply 2 of 31
    Sadly the voice recognition is awful.
  • Reply 3 of 31
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacBookBoy View Post


    Sadly the voice recognition is awful.



    It works well for me, if I put on a "North American English accent" as the settings suggest. I tried with 'whats the capital of Japan', '4 times 2' and 'Japanese yen exchange rate' and it got them all. Oh and of course 'pizza' too.



    But if I use my natural (Southern British English) accent it gets nothing. Well, it guesses at *something* but it's nowhere near correct.



    Still, for the North Americans out there, it looks like it could be ok (if you assume my take on the accent was passable).
  • Reply 4 of 31
    Worked extremely well for this American. Will have to try in my faux British accent though.
  • Reply 5 of 31
    It seems when I'm real drunk it has a harder time figuring out what I'm saying. Please Google... fix this!
  • Reply 6 of 31
    I was blown away by how accurate it is--it got 100% of whatever I've thrown at it. I'm beginning to see just useful this is going to be.
  • Reply 7 of 31
    If you hold it to your ear while it is "calculating", "parsing", or whatever you call it there is a voice saying putybutybutybutyputy or something similar to that. thought it was humorous. Thing works okay but I have yet to get the screen where I can select from various elements like contact/web?as it shows in the video?it always goes to web.
  • Reply 8 of 31
    s27s27 Posts: 1member
    Total Information Awareness never had anything on google. Now they even know and will store your signature voice patterns. This is an attempt to sneak in voice biometrics.
  • Reply 9 of 31
    lol, unicorn pictures
  • Reply 10 of 31
    It works great for me. I'm mightily impressed. And I'm not even a native English speaker.

    Unit conversions, full address look-ups, image searches, location awareness ... couldn't be easier than this.
  • Reply 11 of 31
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Works great for me.
  • Reply 12 of 31
    Nope, my Southern British with a lisp doesn't work. Except for Pizza, so that's ok! :-)
  • Reply 13 of 31
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,754member
    Too bad location-based search results don't seem to work all that well for Canada. Other than that, the voice recognition works ok for me.
  • Reply 14 of 31
    All you have to do is look at the version and you realize that Google is gonna pimp this app before they're finished. It's sweet!!!
  • Reply 15 of 31
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    It seems to do location searches only for certain words like weather and movie times, but I think it should do location searches for police, fire department, medical emergency, etc.
  • Reply 16 of 31
    Epic fail when speaking my contact names, but does a good job with everything else. Going to take some getting used to I think.
  • Reply 17 of 31
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hoss View Post


    All you have to do is look at the version and you realize that Google is gonna pimp this app before they're finished. It's sweet!!!



    It really is nice



    ______________

  • Reply 18 of 31
    I am having trouble with the location services and I live in New England.



    It never prompted me asking permission to use my current location and when I search for movie showtimes it doesn't give me anything except links to moviephone and fandingo.



    When I do manage to get something location based it asks me to enter my ZIP code... Where do I check to see if I allowed them to use my current location because there is no such option in the options menu.
  • Reply 19 of 31
    ipod touch G2 has mic support, bring us voice support too.
  • Reply 20 of 31
    Pretty much worthless as it doesn't seem to try a local search



    Takes me to websites instead of local addresses and phone numbers !
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