Google has pushed out Voice Actions to Android smartphone users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. The service now works in British English as well as French, Italian, German and Spanish. Voice Actions lets you control your smartphone by spoken commands. By telling your phone what to do, it will do it. Actions include sending a text message, calling, navigation, map, directions as well as performing a Google search.
To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, open the Voice Search app, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen. You can see how it works in this video.
The following commands can be used:
send text to [contact] [message]
call [business]
call [contact]
go to [website]
navigate to [location/business name]
directions to [location/business name]
map of [location]
And of course, you can still conduct a Google search using your voice.
The new Voice Actions update is available on both smartphones and Honeycomb tablets. The base requirement is that you are running Android 2.2. The service is part of the Voice Search app that is available in the Android Market on your smartphone.
To see a demonstration of how Voice Actions works, take a look at the video below to see it in action:
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