Voice Search gets personal

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 | 9:02 AM

When we launched Voice Search more than two years ago, we wanted it to “just work” right out of the box, without an initial setup process. And so, we built speech models broad enough to accommodate a wide variety of people, regardless of gender, age, and accents, or variations in pitch, pace, and other factors. But we always knew we could build a more accurate model by listening to your voice, and learning how you -- as a unique individual -- speak. So today we’re launching personalized recognition.

If you opt into personalized recognition, we begin to associate the recordings of the words that you ask us to recognize with your Google account. We then automatically use these words to build a speech model specifically for you. This speech model enables us to deliver greater recognition accuracy. Although subtle, accuracy improvements begin fairly quickly and will build over time.

The first time you use Voice Search, you’ll be presented with a dialog to turn on personalized recognition. Google takes your privacy seriously, so you can enable or disable personalized recognition at any time through the Google voice recognition settings on your phone. If you’d like to disassociate your voice recordings from your Google Account, you can do so through the Google Dashboard in the Speech section.

The personalized recognition functionality is currently available for English in the United States. We plan to support other countries and languages in the near future. To enable it, you must have Android 2.2 or higher, and download the latest version of the Voice Search app from Android Market. The new app also includes some improvements to name recognition and speed, especially over 3G and EDGE connections.

So go ahead and download the latest Voice Search app, and let’s get personal!

Scan this QR code to download:

33 comments:

Pedro said...

Sounds great ! I hope we'll be able to see this (and Voice Actions) in french soon !

ÅggeåÅsa said...

Sweden is a country too, you know...

bverbol said...

Would someone please do a Jamaican patois language?

Unknown said...

It would be nice to have Google Goggles or other apps for Symbian devices. It's verry popular in Europa. Nokia and Sony Ericson devices use it.

aa said...

Can we please have this on Google Chrome browser too, for laptops ?

Nrupen Masram said...

Sounds cool i hope gets available in local languages as soon as possible

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Greg said...

I'm glad to see the personalization feature added. However, even with the personalization feature turned on, voice search still does not recognize several of the last names in my contact list. Is there any way to "teach" the voice recognition application the pronunciation of specific names?

212231 said...

Please guys...
Just give us something comparable in German and please activate voice commands in German! If I use Voice Search the German words for navigation, send text message to... etc. are understood correctly but no action happens.

Thank you guys!

Roocer said...

I don't see the setting "Show hints - Show hints of search box". Am I the only one?

Unknown said...

Yes, please add german language as soon as possible!!!!

TmoGSM said...

Now you just need to work on the Voice Dialer...I can almost never get that thing to work!

comra said...

ÅggeåÅsa, I agree with you. Swedish is a beautiful language!

wingdo said...

Can we please see this in localized spanglish?

Josh said...

Offer a setup if the user wants one. Then you wouldn't have to have this over-time garbage, it would be personalized right away.

pbv302 said...

+1 for Swedish!

Charbax said...

Are you using my speech model in my YouTube videos as well to generate better subtitles? Any way to point out who I interview in my videos so with their permission you can also use their speech models to also generate more accurate subtitles for what they say? Is it able to automatically recognize who is talking in a video so time codes need not be entered as long as all users in the video are just tagged once in the YouTube video settings?

SBS said...

I am hoping that you add support not for additional languages in the future but for multiple languages at the same time to better serve people in mixed language environments, especially when we're talking about languages that are very different.

kcee_iitg said...

when is it coming to iPhone

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Nida said...

i love this Post….!!!
its is so awesum…….i ws lost in a trance while i ws readin it……
gr8 wrk !!!!

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CCACaptioning said...

Will this work for more than one voice? Asking if more than one person can train one mobile device to be as accurate as possible for real time speech to text for millions of people with hearing differences who need a mobile to use in meetings and real life...understand? We hope so :-).

When a mobile can really be used everyplace, for speech to text, with enough accuracy for many voices, we will be celebrating with you. Check out the CCAC and join us there too.
Lauren/CCAC founder
www.ccacaptioning.org - all volunteers

Dor said...

Awesome news!
However it seems the application is not listed in the Market for Samsung Galaxy S i9000 devices in Israel (operator: orange.)

Additionally, it would be great if the voice dial could search contacts nicknames and not only names. This way, if I write the contacts name in an unsupported language, I can write a nickname in English to search by.

gyndius said...

Too bad I don't have a 2.2 capable phone yet. :*(

scott said...

This is genuinely a great post, like the information here and will be sure to check back again. i am wondering when it comes to iphone to?

rajendraS said...

Great stuff. We learn to talk (recognise language) by listening. Software must do the same. I can teach my phone my language now.

Jeff said...

It would be nice if Google “recognized” it's US users that have unbranded phones. I can't get the personalized recognition feature even though I have a US based Google account running on a US carrier, all things Google on my phone think I am in the UK because I run stock HTC Froyo 2.2 which isn't available in the US. Interesting way to judge who is and who is not “in the US”.

ajarnaree said...

So cooooool, when will we (Thai) can use it?

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Screem said...

Dont forget Portuguese! :)

Unknown said...

@dor
Voice search is not yet launched in Israel.

Amir

Unknown said...

@Greg
This is one of the areas that we hope to improve upon.

Unknown said...

Hi. I can not download the Voice Search app from the Market - says there are no matches found in Android Market. I have a HTC Wildifre, recently updated to Froyo. Please help!!

E-W said...

I tried to use the voice search with several of the supported music apps and the integration is a complete failure. The search was recognized fine but in EVERY instance with multiple and different song / artist requests it NEVER found and played the correct songs on ANY of the apps.