Video: Speech apps on Windows Phone 8

I didn’t pay attention to the headline about Audible and WP8 but this is actually super cool.

I love voice commands on my Lumia, in particular, having a conversation for text messages with my actual voice. There were so many times when ordinarily I wouldn’t have been able to get to my phone to read the message or I’d have to stop what I was doing, but now I multitask that in real life. Sometimes I find it easier/faster to ask it to look up something online than typing it out (like if I’m carrying lots of stuff).

http://mynokiablog.com/2011/11/28/videos-voice-commands-on-nokia-lumia-800

In this video, we can see that in Windows Phone 8, developers will have the ability to allow users to control their app, just with voice. The limit will apparently just be the developer’s creativity.

I think that’s quite awesome! There’s that immediate hands free use when in the car or various other new interactions. Perhaps when spotify decides to be stable, I might be able to control spotify tracks (and not simply music tracks I have stored, though I can’t currently do that either). Perhaps it will mean more universal voice? It would be useful whenever there’s a search box perhaps.

The demo had a little glitch but the guy handled it really well. Better than the other dude who demoed the Surface.

This may not be a feature to be used all the time (e.g. in busy areas, libraries etc) but when the opportunity arises, it can be so useful.

Hopefully they improve the action to initiate speech. Pressing a button is a hindrance. I’d like a voice initiation command, like ‘Xbox ____’. During voice text speech, I never have to press a button, it just tells me there’s a text from this person and whether I want to read it/ignore and subsequently reply.

by WMPowerUser

Category: Windows Phone