No Speech to Text?

[dtboos]

A major concern to me about this phone is it seems to have the the ability to use voice to text 'disabled' by either HTC or Tmobile on this phone. Its part of 2.1 firmware, but everywhere I have looked says it doesnt actually work.

I hope this is not true for the US release. Maybe it has to do with the fact that HTC somehow decided to not include noise canceling mics on these phone? Which is another baffler to me...

 

[Droid800]

A major concern to me about this phone is it seems to have the the ability to use voice to text 'disabled' by either HTC or Tmobile on this phone. Its part of 2.1 firmware, but everywhere I have looked says it doesnt actually work.

I hope this is not true for the US release. Maybe it has to do with the fact that HTC somehow decided to not include noise canceling mics on these phone? Which is another baffler to me...

HTC might have stripped it out because of Sense. I can't remember where I read it, but because the Desire isn't officially a 'Google' experience phone, it won't get the voice to text system.

 

[dtboos]

Thats a bummer if so. Curious as well because thats actually part of the underlying OS, and would take HTC to make an actual effort to keep it from being enabled. Looks like I'd have to root it then, which I'd rather not do, but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do...

 

[Droid800]

Thats a bummer if so. Curious as well because thats actually part of the underlying OS, and would take HTC to make an actual effort to keep it from being enabled. Looks like I'd have to root it then, which I'd rather not do, but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do...

They might not have had the chance. The only phones that have it so far are Google Experience phones, so Google probably won't allow it.

 

[dtboos]

Interesting. Wonder why that is. Its still Android under HTC's skin, so I'd be curious to know why they don't want seemingly core Android feature used when manufacturers customize the UI.

 

[j33van#AC]

Similar to my question about the UK...

Similar to my question about the UK... I thought that it was possibly disabled because it's no a US version. Looks like u guys are going to have a problem overall even with the US version. If rooted, will itvhave the speech to text function..?

 

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Whoever wrote this code, can decide not to include it

but they can't disallow it. That's how open licensing of Linux, and therefore, Android, works. Now, the providers may request HTC not to include it in a build as well. So, if Google wrote the code, they may decide not to offer it as part of whatever they provide as an Android Operating System to the manufacturers. If HTC wrote this code, or got it from Google, they may decide to not put it on a given phone, for whatever reason, OR, they may not put in on a given model from a given mobile provider at the provider's request, which has been fairly common in the past for things like tethering.
But the source code is available somewhere, as it must be. So anyone can get it, enhance it, use it, and even sell support for it - but there are restrictions of charging for the code IF it is part of the operating system. This is why somebody will likely port it to the 2.1 builds that don't have it. Only downside is you'll probably have to root the phone to install it.

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Update:
Doesn't say how, but check it:
YouTube - Turning an HTC Desire into a Nexus One
skip the vid if you want and look below for comment by "ringosis"
Maybe getting voice recog working is trivial. I hope so.
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[SteveEdson]

Search the xda forums, there's a file and it works perfectly. Don't know why they removed such a great feature.

 

[Sonicaholic]

Search the xda forums, there's a file and it works perfectly. Don't know why they removed such a great feature.

Any chance of a link I have searched the xda forums without any success.

 

[eyesparky]

I have this working on my HTC Desire but as I did it within a day of getting the phone I am struggling to remember where I side loaded the apk from. As for the functionality with only one microphone (no noise cancelling) I tested this yesterday in a cafe where the barista had the steam going full belt and you could hardly hear yourself think ... search gave me what I wanted first time. It is not always perfect but it usually is pretty good. I will keep trying to remember where I got it from ...

 

[eyesparky]

Okay, I think I got the file via XDA but someone earlier in the thread said there was nothing there ... I then loaded it on with Astro. There is an article here How to add voice search to the HTC Desire - News - Know Your Mobile but I can not vouch for the source they point to ... the method is the one I used though. Hope that hekps.