is it just me or does the voice recognition SUCK!!

[blueyzfr6]

I try to do the voice text, where I talk and it types. The S4 gets almost every word wrong. I try it on the S3 and it works like a charm... What gives???

 

[byeblackberry]

Mine works perfect.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[smooth4lyfe]

Mine works perfectly too...speak clearly and make sure there isn't a lot of background noise either

 

[thegrants82]

I try to do the voice text, where I talk and it types. The S4 gets almost every word wrong. I try it on the S3 and it works like a charm... What gives???

Mine works great.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[SpookDroid]

Yup, mine works fine, too... and that's in two languages. Now, the question would be WHICH serivce are you using? Most will default to Google's recognition service, but that might be different in your case.

Also, check your case if you have any... The GSII, for instance, was known to have echo while calling if you had it in a case (something about a noise-cancelling microphone placement inside the phone) and some cases are known to block the microphone's partially or cause microphonic noise (as in noise from friction) when you're moving, affecting your microphone since the noise would be so close to it.

 

[jarettp]

Google Now works great. S-voice....ehhhhhhhh.

 

[tohio]

I am amazed at how well it works on my S4. Try different distances form the phone. Maybe you are too close or too far.

 

[sbsparky68]

Not only does the voice recognition suck, it comes up with weird words or even things that appear to be non-words. As an example, one time I used the word "electrician" in a text and it printed out "A electrician" One time and "electric shin" another time. Also sometimes I ask for a period and it prints out the word "period" while other times it prints one. Not to mention when I ask for a comma it prints out "kama." What in the world is a kama? What is the deal? My Galaxy S2 seemed to work much better in this function than my S4 does. By the way, all of you people posting replies with "Mine works fine" or "no problem here," that's just great. Why don't you go away since you do not help the forum by adding this information? Forums are for people to share information, and in some cases help to solve a problem.

 

[sbsparky68]

Then why are you here if it is perfect?

 

[MichaelBR]

Google Now works great. S-voice....ehhhhhhhh.

I find the opposite here.

I find it has to do a lot with the quality of the network connection. 2G or 3G, poor. Wi-Fi, OK.



Sent from my GT-I9505 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[Dire Randall]

Galaxy 4 s ...noticed the same thing, and was getting really frustrated with it, and then I read the trick about holding it further away...works pretty good. Try holding it out at about arms length. it's still not as good as my HTC 2010 Evo 4 was, but at least it's a lot closer

 

[onlybuilt1906]

I agree 210%. I LOVED voice recognition on my S3. I could recite the entire pledge of allegiance or the our father and it not get one word wrong. I'd show it off to all my iPhone siri friends. On the S4, it's beyond frustrating. There has to be something I'm doing wrong because there is no way that the technology could have regressed this badly. HELP.

 

[BabyBrwneyez]

I rarely use the voice app..i feel like she hears what she wants to. Your speaking has to be very precise.

Sent from my Android powered Samsung Galaxy Note II

 

[carltonzone]

YES, it is terrible! My voice recognition on my S2 was perfect. The S4 is most horrible. If you are not in a perfectly quiet room, you can forget it. It's especially bad when driving with the windows down. I don't know what they did but the screwed something up big time. I'm going to write a blog post on this. My blog site gets a lot of traffic and hopefully I will drum up some support for this issue.

I agree 210%. I LOVED voice recognition on my S3. I could recite the entire pledge of allegiance or the our father and it not get one word wrong. I'd show it off to all my iPhone siri friends. On the S4, it's beyond frustrating. There has to be something I'm doing wrong because there is no way that the technology could have regressed this badly. HELP.

I empathize with your frustration! Voice input was flawless on my S2. It is NOT the same on my S4, and I have had two devices (one had a defective earpiece speaker and I had it replaced under warranty). Nobody can tell me that something has not been changed between the S3 and the S4 regarding voice input. I think it is the noise cancelling mic. If you are in a car with the window down, this device is useless for voice input, PERIOD. I think those who claim it "works perfect" may have not had an S2 or S3. Or did they? Comments? I really want to figure this out though. This is a real issue and there are lots of people who have reported it.

 

[carltonzone]

This is somewhat solved to my satisfaction now. Those of you who posted about holding the device about an arm's length away from you while talking were right. I had the windows down in the car, tried that, and it worked perfectly. Near perfect. Maybe still not as good as my S2, but it was a whole lot better. I'm guessing this must have to do with the noise canceling mic. Not sure if the S2 had that feature.

 

[Edible Walrus]

Nope. Mine understands what I'm saying nine out of ten times. In fact probably more than that. It hasn't always interpreted correctly though (I think S Voice has but Assistant hasn't)

I empathize with your frustration! Voice input was flawless on my S2. It is NOT the same on my S4, and I have had two devices (one had a defective earpiece speaker and I had it replaced under warranty). Nobody can tell me that something has not been changed between the S3 and the S4 regarding voice input. I think it is the noise cancelling mic. If you are in a car with the window down, this device is useless for voice input, PERIOD. I think those who claim it "works perfect" may have not had an S2 or S3. Or did they? Comments? I really want to figure this out though. This is a real issue and there are lots of people who have reported it.

I never had an S2, S3 or Galaxy S as the S4 is my first smartphone. I've Bern able to use S Voice and Assistant with the TV on and they've both worked fine. Occasionally they get things wrong though

Posted via Android Central App

 

[m1ke R]

He voice recognition my a$$ 4 what's this way
"The voice recognition on my s 4 works this well" (forum edited what my phone typed so I changed it to a$$ but you get the idea)
mine works fine too... well good enough to never use it anyways. I've never had a samsung before and this will likely be my last. I had many htc phones even a lg phone that worked better. My htc evo 3d worked better than the s4 after I dropped it in water...
I'm very surprised no one has a better solution than hold it farther away. If I put it in a different room it seems to get the same percentage of the message correct though.
Here is my findings... with a near soundless background it seems to be okay. What good that is when the only time I need to use it is in the car!
next improvement is holding it out as far as you can. Yes it almost will get your thought accross if the person reading it can understand every other word or so, and multiple languages apparently.

I did eventually get it working...
not that I was happy with that solution either; and I reverted back and stopped trying to use speech recognition function as with a few other features (saved for a different thread).
Reflashed my phone with original s4 software from google and speech recognition worked as well as my htc even when I was in my car with the window down.
So my only conclusion is that samsung sam-ucked it up!

 

[hausjam]

I cannot bring myself to talk to an electronic device of any kind. So voice recognition will never matter to me. Until maybe I get beamed into the star trek future.

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[Dave-in-Decatur]

There are multiple voice-recognition venues and options on the S4, and some of them definitely work better than others. For using voice commands to search, call, text, etc., Google Voice Search (AKA Google Now) works far, far better for me than Samsung's S Voice.

What I think most people in this thread are talking about is typing text, into a memo or text message for instance, by speaking into the phone. This will be dependent on the keyboard app you are using. Go into one of the apps where you commonly enter text by typing or by voice. Notice that in the status bar at the top left of the screen there is a keyboard icon, which indicates that you're in a text-entry app or area. Pull down the notification screen and find the item "Select input method." Tap on that to choose among, for instance, Google voice typing, Samsung keyboard, and Swype. (You may see different options, depending on the phone and on what you have enabled in Settings > My device > Language and input; here too the sequence or labels may vary on your phone.) Selecting Google voice typing gives you a voice-only text-entry system powered by Google's voice recognition. Selecting Samsung keyboard will bring up a keyboard that has a microphone icon just left of the spacebar. Tapping that icon will get you a different voice-recognition system to enter text. Other keyboard apps available in the Play store (such as Smart Keyboard Pro, which I love) may also have voice-recognition activated by tapping a microphone icon. Some of these may just use Google, but others may not. The different voice-recognition systems definitely work differently for different people, depending on your voice, accent, etc.

So there are some choices. You can experiment (time-consuming, but worth it if you want to voice-type on your phone) and hopefully find one that works for you. But all of them are going to work best in a quiet environment when you speak clearly into the phone.

 

[Benjamin Vallery]

this seems to have worked for me.... settings - my device - language and input - voice recognizer - switched off google to"Samsung powered by Vlingo".

hopefully it works better in the car etc.... so far it good on my couch. it also seems like an easy reason for it be a problem between the s3 (which worked great) and the s4 with new software defaults and stuff.