Control your phone with your voice

Vlingo allows you to control your phone using only your voice. You can the app to call, send SMS and emails, and even perform Google searches, simply by speaking into it.

Using Vlingo couldn’t be simpler. You just touch the Tap & Speak button and speak your command. The program comes with a guide of the kind of things you can say. For instance, you can say “Call” then speak the name of the contact, use the word “Find” to look something up on Google, and even update Twitter and Facebook vocally.

Vlingo comes with an InCar mode, which allows you to control your phone safely while driving, without using your hands. There’s also a SafeReader tool, which will speak SMS and email messages to you. These kind of tools help to make Vlingo a useful program for people with sight or motor impairments, making the phone much more accessible to them.

The speech recognition in Vlingo is pretty good, and it managed to pick up most of what we said during our tests. It doesn’t matter too much if the matching isn’t perfect because you are able to edit dictated messages before sending them.

We did experience some stability issues with the app when testing using a HTC Desire. For instance, when attempting too link a Twitter account, Vlingo would crash or wouldn’t recognize the account.

Vlingo is an impressive app, and with a bit more fine-tuning from the developer, it could become an essential accessibility tool for Android phones.

Restored 1×1 widgetFixed microphone compatibility issues with Swype, Moto Atrix, and othersGreatly reduced initial start time, no more time outs on older devicesRecognition tones can now be turned off in settingsRestored “Shake to skip” functionality on SafeReaderSafeReader button added back to home screenImprovements to auto-listen (app exits upon completion of your action)Improvements to direct dial-by-number (reduced delay)Faster, more responsive contact searches

Changes

• Restored 1×1 widgetFixed microphone compatibility issues with Swype, Moto Atrix, and othersGreatly reduced initial start time, no more time outs on older devicesRecognition tones can now be turned off in settingsRestored “Shake to skip” functionality on SafeReaderSafeReader button added back to home screenImprovements to auto-listen (app exits upon completion of your action)Improvements to direct dial-by-number (reduced delay)Faster, more responsive contact searches