Try this:
Settings -> Language & Input -> Google Voice Typing (tap the settings icon to the right) -> Download offline speech recognition.
Now your N4 won't be trying to contact Google's servers each time you use voice input!
I have just purchased a Galaxy Note 2 from Bell Canada. Same problem. After pressing the Microphone icon, nothing happens as usual. The keyboard disappears and is replaced by a white outline of a microphone. It does not turn red and will not not recognize any speech. The red microphone seems to just randomly turn itself on and off. Yesterday it seemed that if i swiped my finger from the bottom left corner up to the mike icon, this would turn the mike red and i could get speech recognition for a few seconds. Then the message about not connecting to Google. Today I tried that and nothing. Then i discovered that if the white mike outline is there, I could activate voice recognition by pressing the volume button on the side of the phone. This would work for a few seconds. i was really impressed by how well the program could quickly type exactly what i was saying. Then i get the non-connection message and it's game over. i talked to the folks at the phone store and they had no ideas.:'(
Hi all,
I found this problem as well and think have discovered what is causing it.
Basically, Google voice search cannot understand you. I found that if i talked slowly and said 'Hello', it would pick it up and successfully search for it, whereas if I talked too quickly it would come up with the message 'can't reach Google at the moment'.
Unfortunately we are all going to have to wait for an update to fix this, but if downgrading the app works for you then do that if you want.
I had to tweak the solution a bit to get it to work for me on my new Samsung Galaxy S5 that was having the same issue:
I noticed when I went into Languages, I had mine set for English (Canada) yet, Google Voice Typing default dictionary was English (US).
As an aside I don't get the difference unless you're from Texas,NJ, or Boston, we all pretty much sound the same (except for when us Canucks say aboot or "eh" lol).
I added the English (US) as my primary language (Language and Input>Google Voice Typing>Languages>EnglishUS), and now it works fine.
Hopefully this helps someone else!![]()