Incredbile lacks Bluetooth voice dialing

[kenc3dan]

I emailed Verizon and sadly the Incredible does not have Bluetooth initiated voice dialing. They responded within 6 hours via email and a voicemail.
Looks like I'll be stuck with my old E815, the Devour or the iPhone.

Thank you for contacting Verizon Wireless through our website. My name is xxxx and I will be more than happy to assist you with information regarding rather or not the Droid Incredible has the Bluetooth voice activated dialing. I can appreciate you wanting the safety of this feature.

I attempted to contact you on mobile number ending in xxxx to further discuss your account in detail and I was unable to reach you. However, I did leave a voicemail message. Unfortunately the Bluetooth voice activated dialing is not a feature included with the HTC Droid Incredible. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

 

[Adiliyo]

afaik, the only android phone that has it is the devour....

 

[johnny99]

Can a 3rd party app add this feature?

 

[thebizz]

I would think so since moto added the feature to the devour

 

[scottandtisha]

With so many states requiring headset use, it still blows my mind that voice dialing is unavailable on so many phones!!

 

[o4liberty]

You would think Verizon would put it in the device but no! I can't figure out why these carriers don't make the new devices they sell are up to date.

 

[Adiliyo]

Can a 3rd party app add this feature?

personally, i'm really surprised no body has developed an app to do this, i'm quite sure it would sell well.

 

[kenc3dan]

My understanding is that the Devour uses a voice dialing suite from Nuance to allow Bluetooth initiated voiced dialing. The Devour works great for Bluetooth voice dialing but is a weak device with a small screen, poorly utilized front face space and Android 1.6. Regarding what might happen in the future to fix things, I would imagine that it's just a matter of two possibilities.

1) Google licenses and builds Nuance Voice Suite into all future versions of Android

2) Verizon licenses and puts it into their builds of Android

Does anyone know how this might actually work?

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

Its not entirely needed... While I think it should be added, here's a way around it:

Long press the search button and your will get a voice search popup.

Say: "Dial So-and-so mobile/home" and it dials the number for you.

 

[Adiliyo]

while that works perfectly fine, i think the issue people have with the solution is that you still have to handle the phone, which is a somewhat undesirable element when you're driving and with some other platforms, you could just hit the button on your headset to initiate the voice dialing without having to pick up the phone.

 

[Andrew Ruffolo]

True, I agree totally. It's not an issue for me since I have my phone mouned on the dash, I don't have to look down. I'm working on a windshield mount now (waiting on parts) that the basic concept can be replicated on any phone for very little (~$15).

 

[Adiliyo]

i'm probably going to get the car dock they will sell for the incredible, which does help.

it still would be nice for google to add the feature to the platform though

 

[Syco54645]

Wow this is rather unacceptable given my first cell phone had voice dialing (some lg flip phone. Probably 7 years old now and that is being generous). Why would they leave this off?

 

[Adiliyo]

ask google.

i'm surprised HTC didn't build it into sense though

 

[Dexter923]

Bluetooth car question

My old BB worked just fine when it paired with my car. My Incredible will pair but will not call using the contacts list but will dial if I say call a number. Is this because the phonebook does not transfer like the BB did? When I paired the BB it always showed "transfer complete"! Thoughts anyone............

 

[newdroidnewb]

With so many states requiring headset use, it still blows my mind that voice dialing is unavailable on so many phones!!

unavailable on so many phones? there are other phones besides android that don't have this?!?

I can't believe Google has not addressed this yet. Every phone I have had since my first Razor (like 6 or 7 phones later) have had voice dialing and they were all from different manufactures. The Nuance software on BB is great. I never have to repeat myself and it actually sounds like a human when it repeats back to you.

This and a couple other things that seam really simple to me to fix but aren't being fixed are going to be deal breakers for me.

Its disappointing, because I think Android and the Inc. is a great piece of equipment and I would love to give up my BB.

I know no phone is perfect and I don't expect a perfect phone, it just happens to be that a couple small things that I value the most are lacking on Android.

 

[hakoreh]

when i'm in my car i press the bluetooth button and my phone dials with prompts..i mean what is my car telling the phone to do when i press the bluetooth button?

 

[gotroot801]

when i'm in my car i press the bluetooth button and my phone dials with prompts..i mean what is my car telling the phone to do when i press the bluetooth button?

If the car transfers contacts to its own address book, you can dial. If you use a Bluetooth headset or car kit that doesn't have its own address book, you need to initiate the call from the phone.

 

[Mark_Venture]

Its not entirely needed... While I think it should be added, here's a way around it:

Long press the search button and your will get a voice search popup.

Say: "Dial So-and-so mobile/home" and it dials the number for you.

That is fine when it works, or when it completely understands you. But you still have to pickup the phone and find/tap on the icon to start it.

For me, the phone often doesn't understand me and prompts to make a selection via an on-screen pop-up that I have to read and tap, especially when a contact contains multiple phone numbers (for home, mobile, work). This is not welcome while I'm driving.

Can a 3rd party app add this feature?

Not really. The code for Android to respond to the multifunction button press is DISABLED.

I can't believe Google has not addressed this yet. Every phone I have had since my first Razor (like 6 or 7 phones later) have had voice dialing and they were all from different manufactures. The Nuance software on BB is great. I never have to repeat myself and it actually sounds like a human when it repeats back to you.

first razr and 6 or 7 phones later? Way more than that for me My V710, which I purchased in April 2005, was the first bluetooth capable phone I owned. It had speaker independent voice activated dialing via bluetooth. It used "Obey Moto" (which works exactly as Nuance does today). Every phone I've had since ( see the list -> Mark_Venture's Verizon Phone Info Page ) with possible exception of the Moto Q9m and VX6900 (as I don't recall if those two windows mobile devices had it, or had to record/train the phone first to use BT voice dialing).

This has been an issue for Android phones, google has a "bug" report open since Nov 2008 (see -> Issue 1181 - android - [VoiceDial] Voice confirmation for Voice Dialer - Project Hosting on Google Code ) so I doubt they will ever add code to Android to do it. AFAIK, the Moto Devour and a HTC device on Sprint are the only two Android phones which do BT Voice Dialing, and that is because they have Nuance or something like it added.

And I don't see Google paying license fees to add something like Nuance VSuite to ALL Android devices.

Look how many Moto Droids that have been sold yet it lacks this feature. Without much/any advertising, the Incredible sold out when released. Look how many other android devices have been sold which also lack this feature.

So looking at it from a pure business perspective, seeing as they sold how many phones that lack this capability, what financial benefit would google have to license a 3rd party product to add this capability, or even to spend time adding it to the Android base code or fixing what they have which doesn't work?

For now, there are two possible work arounds...

Voice Dialer HF (DFXmobile)
Choice Dialer

You still have to handle the phone to start them... and due to Android limits, they use the phone's mic and speaker until the call is connected.