Android Voice Commands Fix Tip
Android Voice Commands can be a bit tricky – that’s why you may need this fix tip. In case you have tried using the Android Voice Commands and they are just not working for you, we have a fix that will hopefully make it all work out on your Droid phone. If you have not read our intro tip or tutorial article about Android Voice Commands, you may want to now.
But just because we have written about it a little, does not mean it is automatically going to work on your phone!
Android Voice Commands Fix Tip – The Problem
When Android Voice Commands are not working properly, you usually end up with a Google Search online for what you were hoping your phone would be doing. Instead of getting a Text Message ready to send, you see the Google Search results for “Send text to Bob…” – not what you were looking for!
Android Voice Commands Fix Tip – will it work?
This happens for a couple of reasons: 1) Your phone is not capable of doing the full set of Voice Commands or 2) Your phone’s software parts are not properly updated.
To determine if your phone can do this Android Voice Commands (technically called Android Voice Actions) thing at all, go to the Android Market, then search for an App called “Voice Search” by Google. If you can not see it, then I’m sorry, but the coolness factor of your phone just took a nose dive!
If you can’t download the “Voice Search” app from the Market, then you most likely will not be able to do all the Android Voice Commands on your phone. Check with your Service Provider for details on what you can do.
Android Voice Commands Fix Tip – Voice Search is visible in the Market, now what?
So assuming that you CAN see the FREE “Voice Search” app by Google in the Market, then we have a fix that should get things working for you. Leave the Market for now and follow the next few steps in order and hopefully you’ll be ready to go using the Android Voice Commands like we have discussed in other tips articles and tutorials here at www.UseMyDroid.com.
- Choose “Menu” and then “Settings”
- Choose “Applications” then “Manage Applications”
- Find a way to “Show All” your Apps in this “Manage Applications area”
- Scroll to find the App called “Voice Search” and Select it
- Press the “Clear Data” button (yes, do it)
- Go Home
- Go to the Market and Search for the “Voice Search” App by Google
- Select the Free “Voice Search” App and Download it or Update it to your phone
- If asked, say “Yes”, you are OK letting Google watch your voice commands corrections
Android Voice Commands Fix Tip – Did it work?
Now that you have cleared the Voice Search data and re-installed the App by the same name onto your phone, your Android Voice Commands should be working. When you tell it things to do, it should start doing things instead of just taking you to a Google Search. We have noted on our other tips articles and tutorials that certain phones don’t like you using the “to” word, so you may want to keep that in mind when your say your commands.
Android Voice Commands Fix Tip – All better now?
This Android Voice Commands fix tip is usually what needs to be done to make the phone you have work with Android Voice Commands – assuming you can see the “Voice Search” app in the Market like we said above. Is it all better now for you? Let us know if this helped or not in the comments below. Have fun talking to your phone and making it do stuff for you!
Tags: Android Voice Actions, Android Voice Commands, tips
146 responses to Android Voice Commands Fix Tip #7
@Neil Good question, but I really don’t know how you’d train the device to ignore something it thinks is correct. Sorry!
I purchased a new cricket huawei M865 accent II smart phone and my just speak voice stopped working. I followed your fix to include removing app I was directed to create a google account I cannot go any further what should i do now? What a mess!
@Annie I believe the fix you are speaking of may have had you remove the old ‘Voice Search’ app and then REPLACE IT with a newer ‘Voice Search’ app. Is that what you tried? You might look down in this comment thread for the comment left by ‘Glaiza’ as they left instructions when yo might be dealing with Google Accounts, etc.
Why does my Android voice search skip the “to” field when I tell it send text or email?
@Ilene, maybe you could try saying ‘text susie que’ instead of saying ‘send text to susie que’ and your problem might be solved. (‘email suzie que’)
I have a similar problem as Ilene. I say “Call Amy” and it searches it on google. I say “Text Mark pause I will be there in a minute” and it bring up a text that says “Text Mark I will be there in a minute” but it skips the “to” field and puts in the message part. Frustrating!
@Kelly, when it works it is great! when it doesn’t it is frustrating… can your phone svc provide help out?
I am having the same issue as Kelly and Ilene, when I try to have my phone send a text or e mail it skips the TO: and just goes to the message area. If I tell it to send a text to say Jesse, the message area says To Jesse and the message but it won’t send it. If you try to send the message you get ” a reqired field is missing” error and it’s because there is no name or contact info in the actual TO: area. Very frustrating, any ideas t fix it? I updated the Voice Command per this sites instructions but nothing seems to fix this issue.
@Greg, sorry it is not working for you… have you tried the Google Contact Sync suggestions by some here on this comments thread?
I was having the same issues as Kelly, Greg, and Illene. Try exporting to your sd card (if you have one) and then reimporting it. I don’t know why this works but it allows the voice recognition to recognize your contact list.
To export your contacts go to your contacts –> manage settings –> export to sd card. When you import select the backup asssistant + contacts option
I applied the fix and the Voice Command ap now works fine (Android Galaxy SII). However, using the microphone icon on the Google widget on my home page still produces errors with Call, Email, and Message commands. It seems to be launching a completely different ap than Voice Command.
I moved the Voice Command ap icon to my home page, so there is no loss of convience, but it is irritating that I can no longer use the home page microphone icon. Is there a fix for this?
@Denver, find out what the ‘app’ is that you are saying doesn’t work right and try to ‘update’ that app.
Hi Eric,
not sure how to do the backup assistant, select contacts thing but would like to try it, can you tell me where that is on the phone?
My query is how to set a preference for sending text msg. For some reason, it defaults to contact’s pager and not to mobile number, even when I state that in the command. How do I set a preference? Thank you.
I tried the steps above but it did not work for me either. For example, I tried “Call Anna” and it showed me google search options and when i said “send text to Dan”, it skipped the ‘to’ field. What else can I do? I have a Samsung Galaxy Exhibit 4G/Samsung Exhibit II. PLEASE HELP!
Nope. Still the same problem, name comes up as a google search. Sigh…
Hi Droid people,
have a samsung Xcover, applied the fix & restarted the phone – its STILL taking me to a google search! Even tried the import / export suggestion….any ideas?
The voice command was working perfectly for all functions on Mynew motorola XPRT including “call”. and I never exported my contact list to my goggle account. then I had a problem with getting VM notifications so sprint started messing with my phone and reset it. Then the voice command did not work (basically went to goggle serach). i’ve been reading the tips, etc. I exported and then reimported my contact list but now Ihave duplicates of everything and so even though the voice commnade is responding appropirately it cannot go directly to making the phone call because there are mulitples of the same contact (and yes, they are linked) so it brings up all the phone number listings for that person then I can click on one of them and it calls. How do I now get rid of all the duplicate goggle contacts?
I have been through your documentation. Updated and cleared out Voice search as recommended. Everything seems to work EXCEPT when I want to call someone. I consistently get a list of possible things on the screen which is bad when I’m driving, and second I have to pull out my glasses to see it! Any ideas? My old feature phones (many of them) the voice reco worked much better. Any advice? Thanks, Vick
I had the same issues you described above. To fix the issue, you need to have your contacts linked specifically to your google contacts (this is what is used for voice commands.) Try merging your contacts with Google Contacts (Contacts – Settings – Merge With Google) What i did to hide duplicates was then went to Contacts – Settings – More – Display Options, and then ensured the Google Contacts were the only contacts displayed. Let me know if this works for you!
I have the same problem as Kath and Rachel. I uninstalled and reinstalled the Voice Search on my AT&T Samsung Rugby model SGH-I847 running Android Gingerbread v. 2.3.6. Current version of Google Voice Search v 2.1.4. When I say “Call Bob Nobody” it does a google search for all bob’s in my area and calls the first one. I don’t want a google search. I want to call the contact “Bob Nobody” stored in my phone. I have tried saving the contact on the phone and on the card. when I say “call 1234567890″ it works great and calls the number. I guess I need to relearn everyone’s phone number unless you guys can help.
Thanks
Not sure what to say here… usually this is a problem with Voice Commands app not being properly installed.
When I use voice command to send a text, it does not put anything in the send to area. It puts for example:
“send to Dan good game”. But it doesn’t put Dan’s info in the send to area so I have to add it myself.
Any idea what is going on?
Ever since my Droid (Galaxy SII) asked me to install the update for Voice Search, Voice Search is pretty much USELESS!!! I have unistalled the update, cleared memory, installed the update. The only improvement has been that instead of dialing a funeral home when I ask it to dial my home phone number, it dials SmoothCurves instead. If I tell it to dial a number by telling it the number it works OK.
I tried the tip above and some variations to no avail.
When I use my voice command while on wifi it takes a long time to respond or it never responds. Turning off the wifi or when I’m not in a wifi area it works much better. This is true for all three of our phones. Any ideas?
I’m having trouble making voice search hear me. Sometimes it runs great, then other times it doesn’t receive any sound, like its just ignoring me
Just to make sure, there are 2 apps or widgets regarding voice instruction…one is Voice Commands and the other is Voice Search. The problem I have is with Voice Search. When I say Call John Doe mobile, I can a “Did you say” selection screen showing my contact John Doe and then showing a search option for Call John Doe. This did not happen when I first got my phone (Dec. 2011-Razr). If I say Navigate to an address, it gives me the correct navigation to my address and then some other search options, etc. I contacted Google about this. They said this was because of the new update to Voice Search. He was going to have me remove it and reintall old version and under manage apps it shows Disable, but not Uninstall. This is because it came preloaded on my phone. Therefore, I cannot remove it and reinstall old version. So I’m stuck with this crap. What’s the point of a voice command to keep you from using your buttons and then you have to use the buttons anyway????? He said he would send me the info. to contact the developer. The developer is shown as Google Inc., so so we’ll see if they pay attention to any email I send them!
Wow Jennifer, that sounds messy. Hope things work out for you!
I’ve not heard of the problem before… sounds like the WiFi you are connected to is having ‘issues’.
If you are having the issue with the TO field not being filled as most folks are the fix is you HAVE TO HAVE YOUR CONTACTS STORED IN YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT. I have a samsung galaxy ace and there is a little G that shows up beside your contacts once you have them in google. I also did the export to sim and reimport AFTER ENSURING THEY ARE ALL IN THE GOOGLE ACCOUNT. It now works and nothing I did before worked. I reinstalled voice and blah blah all the other rubbish above.
Storing in the SIM card and syncing to Google does not work either. One tech site suggests that the problem is a corrupted file in a protected area of the phone. Two solutions are to root the phone or set the phone back to its default configuration. Neither one I am willing to do.
My recommendation IS NOT TO INSTALL THE UPDATE as this will screw up voice search. Whatever enhancements to VS are just not worth it since VS will be screwed up forever.
Voice Search was working fine on my new Razr M, but now all I get is “Audio Problem” whenever I try to do any spoken commands. Any ideas?
Thanks.
I would think my voice command has changed since the new android update. Before i could use my voice command how to make my phone do things like setting the alarm. Now when I tell it to set the alarm it just goes online to Google and search this for what I’m saying. All the voice commands It had before like sending texts or emaiL, and setting the alarm is no longer available since it just goes online to Google instead. What can I do to fix this? I’m using using GoogleS Galaxy Nexus
while attempting to send a message with voice command I accidentally checked the the pop up box that says “use this action by default. That was send by text message. I now cannot send by email. The message is created fine but attempts to send it by text message only. I’ve cleared data and cache in both voice command and voice search. Attempted to download google voice search from market but it says installed and gives no options. How can I undo the text message by default?
Droid Razr Maxx with ICE. While attempting to send a message using voice command a pop up ask if I wanted to use this action for all messages. It was either text or mail. Mistakenly I selected text instead of email. I now cannot send an email with voice command. All attempts are text messages. I have cleared the data and cache in text, voice search, and voice command app’s. That did not resolve the problem of how to undo the default for text message only with voice command. Also tried to install voice search from the market. When voice search is selected it shows that it is already installed and offers no options. Any ideas for resolving this?
Seattle, I wish there were a fix but I was just forget about getting Voice Commands(VC) fixed. The only way to fix it is to reset the phone back to factory state and never update VC.
What happens is VC gets corrupted down in the root level. Near as I am able to determine the phone from that point on goes straight to the Internet and Google to work most actions. You can dial the phone by speaking the actual phone number not the person’s name. Messaging has the same issues and there are fewer techniques to bypass the problems.
If you root the phone you can fix the problem, or so I have been led to believe.
does not work on my razr hd max. typical google half baked software.
I tried this, but it will not let me download or update the app. I just got this phone (HTC One X for at&t) and it came with the app, and apparently it is the most up-to-date version, but it can’t seem to understand anything I am saying. I never had this problem on my HTC Inspire.
No, followed all the step and Voice Search still doesn’t work at all. Can’t send text to my contacts, or even do a simple phone call. It browses the web looking for “call contact name” So useless!!!
I’m on a Samsung Galaxy Q.
I have an HTC inspire with droid 2.3.5…my voice commands work fine except for my ‘listen to’ command. I have about 5 gigs of music on my SD card, and the music app that came with the phone. The music all plays just fine manually, and the album covers all transferred successfully from windows, so I assume there are no compatibility issues. Typically, when I give the ‘listen to’ command, the phone navigates to YouTube and says ‘an error occurred’ any advice is appreciated.
Actually I have a question.
Does “Android Voice” include “S Voice?”
Thank you.
S
i can find voice search in google play and it shows installed but cannot find in app manager
device: samsung galaxy tab 2 P-310 android 4.1.1
I have a Samsung Stellar. I have tried all of the fixes for the voice commans an it still will not fill in the “text to” or the “email to” properly. It also goes to the web to find a phone number when I ask it to call a number in my contact list. I cannot upgrade Voice Search because it came preloaded and will not uninstall. Does anyone have any contacts with Google I could get in touch with to try to figure this thing out. The phone is nice but this thing is verry frustrating. It would be a REAL useful function….if it worked! Thanks.
Reply to John on Oct 30,2012. I had the same problem…. it was after I downloaded another voice to text app(Text by Voice). If it was actively running when I tried to do the Google voice commands… I got the “audio problems” back from Google voice. I turned off Text to Voice, after you start this one it stays running in the background, and my “audio problems” stopped happening, I am still having issues with Google voice putting everything in the right places, eg the to field in txts, emails, etc and tutorial on my phone actually shows the app sending the text when you have finished talking, but it does not do this. You have to press the send button… kinda defeats the purpose of voice texting so you dont have to handle your phone if driving. Anyway check to see if you have another voice app running when you try to use Google voice.
Well, I see the last post with this text problem in the “To” category was in 2011. Here it is 2013 and I have this problem with my Android Dart that I bought last year. I just found out that a person can do these voice commands a few days ago so thought I would try it out. It still doesn’t work after doing everything I read on here. I get the recipients name in the message body and when trying to send a box comes up that says, “required field missing.” Ya think???? I can’t believe that after all of this time that Google hasn’t fixed this issue!
I have a HTC Thunderbolt. I cannot get the voice search to do anything other than a web search
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