Voice Activated Dialing

[Goldenhorn]

I am in the same boat. Just had my Droid about three days now. The voice dialer app works fine for making calls. In Quick Search or the voice dialer in Car menu, it always brings up a web search. Frustrating.

I too was having this problem. I kept thinking that this was an issue with the search settings, or the voice settings.

For me, the issue was actually in the contacts. I did the steps below to correct this:

In the Contacts screen, Select 'Accounts'
Under 'Manage Accounts, select your Google account
Check the 'Sync Contacts' option. (Mine was unchecked for some reason.)

If yours is checked, you can uncheck it and check it again to force it to sync. It seems that the voice search actually connects to your Google account and searches your contacts there instead of looking at your local list. I hope this helps someone else out there, I spent some frustrating time hunting this issue down.

 

[jigsawkilr]

So far mine seems to be working fine. I say call ____ and it dials them. If I say navigate to _____ it goes there. If I just say a restaurant name it googles it then I select which one I want and navigate to it. Love it!

 

[metsnfins]

when i voice dial someone, it comes up with the wrong facebook picture. if i contact dial them it comes up with the correct one

 

[rudeboy]

NO voice command??? Who the hell figured that was a good idea? All you have is 8 speed dial choices with ur bluetooth. Man that was dumb...one of the simplest, basic functions MISSING. Now while driving, one has to pick up the phone and thumb thru ur contact list or hit the mic, or hit voice dialer...WOW. Try all that at night on a rainy day. Big points lost for that!!

 

[CaryH]

Hopefully this will help those that might have the same problem of not being able to Voice Dial using the regular Voice Search (Not the Voice Dialer). I had verified that I was syncing my Contacts with my Google Contacts and it was fairly obvious because I could see all the same Contacts on my Droid. I also verified that my Contacts were "checked" in my searchable items but whenever I would say: "Call John Doe at Mobile" it would just take me to the Google Search browser page searching for: Call John Doe at Mobile. It wouldn't search through the 300+ contacts I had in my Google Contacts.

***The problem is that your individual Contacts in Google Contacts need to be in your "My Contacts" group not just the "All Contacts" group. Once I moved all the contacts into the "My Contacts" group (or the "Friends" or "Family" groups which implicitly put them in the "My Contacts" group), the Voice Dialing through the Voice Search works better that using the Voice Dialer since it dials directly rather than having to select a narrowed down selection list.

I'm so glad I finally got this to work and it makes the voice dialing really worth while.

 

[rudeboy]

Forget Bells and Whistles and give me a phone

Look at the end of the day, we all want this thing to be a phone. A well designed, functional ...phone. I am *****ing about voice dialing as much as a lot of other people. Ok at the very least, give us a dedicated hard key for the phone. this way if you have to scroll to a previously called number (not just the last number), then you have a chance to communicate on the go a little easier than 3 steps to a contact list. It's just simpler.

 

[hookbill]

Look at the end of the day, we all want this thing to be a phone. A well designed, functional ...phone. I am *****ing about voice dialing as much as a lot of other people. Ok at the very least, give us a dedicated hard key for the phone. this way if you have to scroll to a previously called number (not just the last number), then you have a chance to communicate on the go a little easier than 3 steps to a contact list. It's just simpler.

You sound pretty unhappy about this. Hopefully you're still in your 30 day return period. Maybe you can find a better performing phone. I rather doubt it though.

 

[rudeboy]

Nah, disappointed with the phone functions. Overall 75% satisfied with the features. I just want the simple things to be better

 

[cuskit]

Look at the end of the day, we all want this thing to be a phone. A well designed, functional ...phone. I am *****ing about voice dialing as much as a lot of other people. Ok at the very least, give us a dedicated hard key for the phone. this way if you have to scroll to a previously called number (not just the last number), then you have a chance to communicate on the go a little easier than 3 steps to a contact list. It's just simpler.

You can reduce that to 2 steps (or one) by making a folder on your home screen with direct dial numbers (2 clicks) or an icon each for a couple of your most often dialed numbers (1 click). Though that's not usually a good option as it robs you of your available home screen widgets. Still using the default three screens, I've created a folder on my (right) screen for my 12 most often called numbers. Direct dial is cool.

mikey

 

[kittycat40]

I finally got the voice dialer/car fxn to go to phone instead of web search but I cannot get either voice dialer or car voice dialer to actually dial-- the closest I can get is a list of contacts that I have to touch choose from and then the phone will confirm and dial.
ANY TIPS OUT THERE?
TIA

 

[Neurad1]

I have a similar problem...Most of the time only the droid cartoon shows in the contact image placeholder when I use voice dialing (though the correct images show when I touch dial). I actually get my wife's image in the box when I voice dial my daughter. Really screwy. Have you found a solution?

 

[bigrhino1]

Thank you very much!! That worked, finally!! It was so frustraiting because when I first got the phone it was working great, then one day it did'nt! Don't know why. But again, thank you very much!!

 

[Vindii]

For those having trouble with the voice dialing using the search key on the bottom of the phone. I had the same problem. It would only do web searches. First make sure you go to search setting and check everything you want the phone to search. Then go to your gmail page from a PC and go to your contacts. When I first did this my contacts were in either the friends or family section. You need to get your contact in the "All Contacts" section. Should be able to check them all and move them all at once. Once I change that it worked perfect.

 

[rmart88]

Go to Settings --> Search
You can modify what is searched for.
I hope I am understanding the issue at hand correctly.

I dont think you are understanding. My selected searchable items are Browser, apps, contacts & music, and all it searches is the browser. Even if I am in the phone app and long press the magnifying glass all it ever searches is via the browser. I can use the voice dialer just fine, but I would think the main search glass would pick up on the keywords like CALL, DIAL, & NAVIGATE and search accordingly. Some people this seems to be working just fine for, and others not so much.

I just long pressed the magnifying glass and spoke "Call Aspen Laisure" and it asked if i want to dial the number or cancel... so it worked for me... i also tried "Dial..." to the same result. and I use "Navigate to...." quite often.

 

[cuskit]

Go to Settings --> Search
You can modify what is searched for.
I hope I am understanding the issue at hand correctly.

I dont think you are understanding. My selected searchable items are Browser, apps, contacts & music, and all it searches is the browser. Even if I am in the phone app and long press the magnifying glass all it ever searches is via the browser. I can use the voice dialer just fine, but I would think the main search glass would pick up on the keywords like CALL, DIAL, & NAVIGATE and search accordingly. Some people this seems to be working just fine for, and others not so much.

I just long pressed the magnifying glass and spoke "Call Aspen Laisure" and it asked if i want to dial the number or cancel... so it worked for me... i also tried "Dial..." to the same result. and I use "Navigate to...." quite often.

That's the key - you HAVE TO LONG PRESS.. Using the word FIND also works well. cuskit