Voice Control with Android Version 5

 I wrote an earlier article describing the use of voice with a Nexus 4 phone running Android version 4.

Dialling by Voice

My experience has been that voice dialling in Android version 4 worked well and continues to work well in version 5.

The voice dialling process is the same in Android version 5 s in version 4. For the Jabra Easycall headset, I pressed and held the Answer button on the outside of the headset until the headset bleeped. After a short pause, the voice dialler on the phone started and asked for a name or number.

Voice Control of Phone

The voice control functions in Android version 5 are an improvement on the voice control in version 4.

I updated Settings --> Language & Input --> Google voice typing and switched on all of the options.

I could press the Answer button and immediately release the button (I was "tapping" the button). The headset would say "Connected". I could then say "OK Google" to activate the voice control functions of the phone.

The phone would respond to commands such as "send email" and "send text". I was able to, for example, send an email entirely by voice and without touching the phone. But, the voice reception would repeatedly switch off and I had to say "OK Google" each time that I wanted to issue a command to the email app.

Voice Recognition

The voice recognition function on the phone is remarkable. I was able to dictate text to the phone by tapping the microphone icon of the on-screen keyboard. I was able to dictate the text of, for example, an email with acceptable results. The phone sometimes misunderstood what I was saying but I expect that this will improve with practise on my part.

Conclusion

The voice dial function in Android version 5 works well.

The voice control function works but I found it a bit fiddly to use. But, the voice recognition worked well and I expect that I will use a combination of typing and speech to, for example, send emails.