Up close and personal
Google has launched added personalised recognition technology to its Voice search tool, but Brits will have to wait a while before they get a go.
Users of Google Voice can opt into personalised recognition, which will begin to recognise the recordings of the words that users commonly use for the Google account. The words build a personalised speech model, which enables Google to deliver better accuracy. In a blog post the firm said the process says begins pretty quickly but becomes more accurate over time.
Users can enable and disable Google Voice recognition at any time as well as disassociating their voice recordings from their Google Account via the dashboard in the speech section, the firm said, keen to highlight privacy issues.
While personalised recognition is currently only available for English speakers in the US, Google said it plans on supporting other countries and users ‘in the near future'.
Present stateside users must have Android 2.2 Froyo or higher and download the latest version of the Voice Search app from the Android Market.
The revamped app also has some improvements to name recognition and speed, especially over 3G and EDGE connections, said Google.
While Android users will be experimenting with personalised recognition, Google has released the second version of Google Voice for the iPhone and the new app also has support for the iPad and iPod Touch.
Marcus Foster, Product Manager wrote in a blog that users of the iPod and iPod Touch can send and receive free text messages from the devices, but will not be able to make cell calls.
"While you can't use your iPod or iPad as a phone, you can use it to initiate Google Voice calls with your phones. We call this feature Click2Call. Simply click any ‘Call' button in the Google Voice app on your iPod or iPad and then select which of your phones you want to ring. Google Voice will call your phone and then connect your call," he wrote.
He also said Google has made a string of improvements since it launched the first Google Voice app for iPhone just a few weeks ago.
The improvements include: Disabling text forwarding when a user chooses push notifications to stop duplicate messages, a ‘straight to voicemail' option, a more streamlined way to send text messages and a nifty function that lets people tap and hold messages in their inbox to archive or delete them.
Again, Brits will have to wait a little long for the app as it is only released in the US today for people with an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch with iOS 3.1 or later.
