Help!! I'm ready to throw this phone overboard!!!

**UNTHA East** · 11-27-2012, 09:36 AM

Hello everyone:

I am new to this forum and new to Android phones in general. Just retired my BB for an AT&T Samsung Gal. S3. The worst thing about this phone is the voice dialing! It will interface with my Plantronics Voyager 520 BT, but you have to look at the screen to see if the person you want to call was the person it picked from the contact list. 99% of the time it is WRONG and when I say no, it dials anyway!!! Speaking of contacts, this phone will not sync with the subfolders in my Outlook. I have had to copy all of the contacts into "contacts" for it to sync properly. It has also taken it upon itself to divide contact up into catagories and I am not sure if it will recognize an name in one of those catagories. so far no luck. At this point, I am seriously thinking about bringing the POS back to AT&T and get a faithful old BB. Can anyone out there tell me what the hell is wrong with this thing or if it is just designed that way.

**dark20** · 11-27-2012, 09:46 AM

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**badbrad17** · 11-27-2012, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by UNTHA East

Hello everyone:

I am new to this forum and new to Android phones in general. Just retired my BB for an AT&T Samsung Gal. S3. The worst thing about this phone is the voice dialing! It will interface with my Plantronics Voyager 520 BT, but you have to look at the screen to see if the person you want to call was the person it picked from the contact list. 99% of the time it is WRONG and when I say no, it dials anyway!!! Speaking of contacts, this phone will not sync with the subfolders in my Outlook. I have had to copy all of the contacts into "contacts" for it to sync properly. It has also taken it upon itself to divide contact up into catagories and I am not sure if it will recognize an name in one of those catagories. so far no luck. At this point, I am seriously thinking about bringing the POS back to AT&T and get a faithful old BB. Can anyone out there tell me what the hell is wrong with this thing or if it is just designed that way.

There is probably a good reason for this to be happening so don't despair just yet.

First off, welcome to the Android Central Forums. You are in the best community for help.

I am only using a S2 so there may be a few differences, but this is what I would suggest.

1. Don't sync via usb. Buy the companion link program. It is not exclusive to Android but is a must have program for wireless syncing. It will sync your contacts, calendar and Notes etc. to your Google account and back to your computer. . It's $40 but you can try before you buy. Money well spent.

2. Make sure your contacts are entered properly. I had a bunch of contacts that were entered wrong with both first and last name entered into the first name field etc. which screws up some voice recognition.

3. Your phone is smarter than your BB so it can do more things. It allows you to search more things than just your contacts which is why it will sometimes bring up more than one option. If you spend some time learning the best way to phrase your commands you can quite often get better results. Ie: "dial Joe Smith on mobile" may be more effective than saying "call Joe Smith". Play with it and see what works best.

I hope this helps and wish you good luck.

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**UNTHA East** · 11-29-2012, 09:15 AM

Just a quick note to say that since my last post, I have talked to three other people who have returned their S3s for this and a miriad of other reasons. Therefore, my S3 is now back in the box and on its way back to AT&T and some other unsuspecting soon-to-be victim of S-Voice. FWIW, I strongly suggest that a "voice dial only" option be built into the sofware so that people like me who have absolutley no need or desire to have conversations with their phones can use just their Plantronics head sets.
Good Bye S3 and hello again to Blackberry.

**badbrad17** · 11-29-2012, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by UNTHA East

Just a quick note to say that since my last post, I have talked to three other people who have returned their S3s for this and a miriad of other reasons. Therefore, my S3 is now back in the box and on its way back to AT&T and some other unsuspecting soon-to-be victim of S-Voice. FWIW, I strongly suggest that a "voice dial only" option be built into the sofware so that people like me who have absolutley no need or desire to have conversations with their phones can use just their Plantronics head sets.
Good Bye S3 and hello again to Blackberry.

So is this only native to the S3? There are many other Android phones. Perhaps the HTC one x+ would solve your problem?

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**Kelly Kearns** · 11-29-2012, 01:09 PM

I've not had any issue with the voice dialing and even the voice texting. I think once when I first used it that it looked for the wrong contact. I have a southern accent, maybe it really understands southern accents the best

**smooth4lyfe** · 11-29-2012, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by UNTHA East

Just a quick note to say that since my last post, I have talked to three other people who have returned their S3s for this and a miriad of other reasons. Therefore, my S3 is now back in the box and on its way back to AT&T and some other unsuspecting soon-to-be victim of S-Voice. FWIW, I strongly suggest that a "voice dial only" option be built into the sofware so that people like me who have absolutley no need or desire to have conversations with their phones can use just their Plantronics head sets.
Good Bye S3 and hello again to Blackberry.

There are other voice dialing apps that work WAY better than S-Voice, there is one called Utter Voice Dialing, and many more....you could have just search the app store for a better voice dialing app
Also Google Now is coming soon to AT&T along with Jelly Bean, which would have been an awesome replacement for your voice Dialer

S-Voice is not that could, but the good thing about android is that someone will always make something better than what comes on the phone, and it can always be replaced easily

**Kelly Kearns** · 11-29-2012, 06:54 PM

I have a Parrot in my car that uses bluetooth and sometimes I use that and sometimes it's just the phone.

**D16RR** · 12-01-2012, 08:57 PM

The problem is S Voice. Worthless piece of crap. Samsung should be ashamed. I was in the exact same frame of mind before I figured out the mic button on the google search widget handles voice dialing very well. Still not as good as a venerable BB for this, but the other, wildly superior aspects of the S3 trump that minor inconvenience. Also, the latest build of Nuisance for BBOS 7 sucks compared to older versions, so not really as big a drawback as it might have been. Too bad the OP didn't stick around to find out how many things the S3 can do that a BB can only go home and dream about. Even for dedicated business use, where a BB should shine, there really is no comparison. That and the radio pulls in signal a lot better.

**Mac.World** · 12-01-2012, 09:12 PM

He's better off with a BB phone. People like this and iFans expect Android to be exactly like their old phone's OS. There is very little that can be said or done to convince them otherwise. Besides, RIM needs the user base. LOL Maybe he'll have better luck with a BB10 phone. I hear they might be released in 2013... assuming RIM survives long enough to get them to market.

**badbrad17** · 12-02-2012, 12:44 AM

Originally Posted by BBrefugee

The problem is S Voice. Worthless piece of crap. Samsung should be ashamed. I was in the exact same frame of mind before I figured out the mic button on the google search widget handles voice dialing very well. Still not as good as a venerable BB for this, but the other, wildly superior aspects of the S3 trump that minor inconvenience. Also, the latest build of Nuisance for BBOS 7 sucks compared to older versions, so not really as big a drawback as it might have been. Too bad the OP didn't stick around to find out how many things the S3 can do that a BB can only go home and dream about. Even for dedicated business use, where a BB should shine, there really is no comparison. That and the radio pulls in signal a lot better.

Can't you just use the default. Voice command in Android and skip S voice?

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**bigdaddytee** · 12-02-2012, 02:02 AM

He'll never know...quitter.

Sent from the red headed stepchild of the Nexii.

**D16RR** · 12-02-2012, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by badbrad17

Can't you just use the default. Voice command in Android and skip S voice?

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Dunno what it's called, but the phone comes with a decent alternative to S Voice.

**badbrad17** · 12-02-2012, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by BBrefugee

Dunno what it's called, but the phone comes with a decent alternative to S Voice.

Well I would think you can use the default voice command app which I use on my SGS2. It works great. Plus the S3 will have Google now in the latest release so I'm confused by the decision to drop it and go. Not to mention that there are a lot of other voice apps too.

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