So here we go, from the same people who brought you the application Say Where?, comes another decent attempt at voice recognition software. Or is it?
The idea is quite simple. It allow users to dial their contacts by speaking their name. Always interested in shortening lengthy tasks, I downloaded this application to see if I could eliminate the 4 step manual dialing process (press phone, go to contacts or recent calls, scroll to find number, and press call).
At first glance it seemed as though this application might find its way into an exclusive spot on my springboard. Clicking the icon opens up a single screen that has a large square button to press when you are ready to speak a contact’s name. Well that’s only 2 steps, so Say Who wins, right?
Wrong. It’s 2 steps to get to your first attempt at dialing a contact. While the previous app I reviewed from Excuse Me Services shined in the voice recognition department, this one fell flat on it’s face. Both voice dialing and speaking the contact’s name returned horrible results. Sure, in exact silence, using perfect diction, I was able to get a few right answers.
But I don’t live in solitary confinement, I live in the real world, and the real world has background noise in it. Especially when traveling in my car, which is where I would find this app most useful anyways.
Maybe if they were to combine this with their Say Where application with more accurate voice recognition, it’d be worthwhile to download. It would also be advantageous to continue to run in the background, or at least when the screen is locked (once again in my car dock). We continue to see innovative software from these guys, but unless you’re accustomed to yelling obscenities at your iPhone driving down the turnpike, I suggest you stay away.
This one definitely falls in the “look-what-my-phone-can-do” category, but may throw you under the bus when trying to demonstrate to your friends. “Call Randy” , “Calling Mom.” “No I swear it usually gets it on the first try, watch!”