8 ms·

Like Siri? Sonalight Brings Powerful Texting-By-Voice To Android

47 points by sskates 15y ago

swombat 15y ago
Like Siri? Here's something that's nothing like it.
- weaksauce 15y ago
  Exactly... voice recognition for texting != conversational artificial intelligent assistant. The frustrating thing is that my viewing their website gave them some amount of ad revenue. I want that money going to accurate reporting and insightful blogging.
  - bagelicious 15y ago
    I feel like the article was quite accurate--a slightly sensational title, but "Texting-by-Voice" is qualified right there in the title. Given the timing of this app, it's comparison to Siri seems to be quite relevant.
    - bittermang 15y ago
      Not when their common thread is a single feature, voice. Like red trucks? Here's a red bicycle.
- funkah 15y ago
  Like riding bikes? Here's a wheel.
- sskates 15y ago
  To diffuse some of this, the comparison to Siri is that it's a conversational voice interface. We're actually surprised that people are picking up that we're optimized for texting while driving and that Siri is a personal assistant (perhaps it's more obvious in retrospect given these comments). Our first expectation was that people would think "oh, how is this different from Siri again, except worse?" and that we'd have a hard time differentiating ourselves.
  - buff-a 15y ago
    "Conversational?" Conversational like the automaton I get when I phone my bank? It looks to me that the system is a canned response / limited expected response / state machine that every motherfucker on earth can do. If you want to do marketing bullshit, HN is probably not the best place to do it. We're actually surprised that people are picking up that we're optimized for texting while driving You are? You are surprised that people are picking up on your core selling point? Why? Did you not feed this to them? We're actually surprised that people are picking up that we're optimized for texting while driving and that Siri is a personal assistant Oh, I see. "Gosh, we're surprised that <some really obvious thing> while <some other thing that we wish to be perceived as true but isnt>". It would be great for you if the press would frame the discussion as "sonalight is for texting while driving while siri is a personal assistant", because it then sounds like siri doesn't totally wipe the floor with you when it comes to texting while driving. If only saying such tripe online would make it true - but maybe HN isn't the place to try it.
    - elisee 15y ago
      Come on, this is HN indeed, can't you assume a little good faith? They're here answering questions, trying to learn from potential customers. Have you launched a product? It's easy to call it "marketing bullshit" and move on with your day. Those people have spent time and energy designing their app, and they didn't post an ad, someone (maybe them, who cares?) posted a link on a blog about their product. Just ignore it if you don't care for it.
      - buff-a 15y ago
        If he'd come on here and talked about their marketing strategy, such as how they are having to deal with a vastly superior product but which fortunately their customers don't have access to, then I'd be all over it, and HN would be a great place to discuss it. But to come here and actually attempt such transparent bullshit gets such transparent bullshit pointed out.
    - sskates 15y ago
      Didn't mean to use marketing-speak. When I said conversational, I meant that our app talks to the user, waits for a reply from the user, then does that cycle again, like Siri does. There are a lot of other ways to do voice interaction, like voice actions does (you press a button and then talk and then something pops up) or Vlingo (where the interaction is mostly hands free, but sometimes requires you to press a button). I'm also serious that we thought that people wouldn't understand the differences between us and Siri. I'm not talking about people commenting on HN, I'm talking about someone who casually hears about our app as a "voice app" from a friend, or who glances at the headline on TechCrunch. The differences are in the details of the execution, and they can be subtle, especially if you haven't gotten a chance to use both apps and do a comparison on how they perform at texting-while-driving.
sskates 15y ago
We just launched. Would love HN's feedback (critical or otherwise).
- reemrevnivek 15y ago
  Your app is nice, but it's nothing like Siri. My dumb phone is an '07 Motorola Razr on Verizon's OS (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_RAZR#Verizon_Wireless_version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_RAZR#Verizon_Wireless_...). It has a button on the side that I press and a computerized voice says "Say a command:" and lists the options: 1. Call <Name> <Loc> 2. Call <Number> 3. Send Text <Name or #> 4. Send Picture <Name or #> 5. Lookup <Name> 6. Go to <App> 7. Check <Item> It only understands these 7 commands. The voice processing wouldn't be good enough to compose a text message, #3 just sets that up for you to key in, but it's doing the job on a 50 MHz single-core ARM9 CPU instead of uploading it to a server somewhere. I have no beliefs that the above task is anything like Siri. Siri is not about turning speech into text. That's been done already, everyone else has a button on their phone that does this, and you're offering them this familiar (and often broken or bad) functionality in an app for Android (Note: I'm not implying that your app is broken or bad). As long as your app is like what people are used to, you'll have a hard time of sales. Once you cross over to the functionality of the well-marketed and Apple-branded Siri, you'll do much better. Based on the description of your features, you're not there yet.
  - sskates 15y ago
    Our sense is that people don't want to use speech for everything ever, they'd much rather use their hands and eyes when they're available. We're laser focused on texting while driving right now, it's the one big use case for voice commands. We've done a lot of user testing and have found the biggest problem with voice products now is that people try them twice or three times, and when they don't work they decide to give up on using that product. No one wants to spend time learning a user interface. So we've optimized our product for the first time user experience for texting. We're offering what voice what Dropbox did for cloud storage. There's nothing novel technology wise per se, only that the product is optimized for ease-of-use. With regards to Siri, we're interested to see how it'll perform once it gets released into the wild.
Zhenya 15y ago
Seems a little sneaky/dishonest of you to not mention the 20 incoming(EDIT: should read compose) sms limit for the app, without paying $20/year. Here is the copy from the android market: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sonalight https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sonalight Text by Voice allows you to safely text while you drive entirely through voice. There's no need to touch or look at the screen at all. Text by Voice will automatically read incoming text messages aloud and give you a chance to respond. You can also set an auto responder for incoming text messages, and have Text by Voice start automatically when you start driving. Text by Voice lets you compose texts on the fly. It runs in the background so you can use other apps at the same time. Drive more safely with Text by Voice. Search Keywords Text by Voice, TextbyVoice, Voice Recognition, Speech Recognition, Hands Free, Speech, Text, SMS, Drive, Driving, Text While Driving, Sonalight, Sonalite, Sonilight, Sonilite, Sonolight, Sonolight, Sonarlight, Sonarlite, sona soni sono sonar light lite text by voice textbyvoice Email dev@sonalight.com PHONE SPECIFIC NOTES: -Tested fully with no problems on Motorola Droid, Motorola Droid 2, HTC Evo, HTC Droid Incredible, HTC Droid Incredible 2, Nexus S, and T-Mobile G2 -Samsung Galaxy S microphone has lower quality audio
- sskates 15y ago
  The limit is only for composing a text. You can receive an unlimited number of texts. Did you get the impression that you could send unlimited texts for free? (serious question- it's not our intention at all)
  - Zhenya 15y ago
    Sorry, I definitely meant to write 'composing' not 'incoming'. That is really the impression I got as it's not mentioned anywhere in your description. I was wondering what your monetization scheme would have been. I predict that you will open this up to unlimited texts and charge for other actions.
    - sskates 15y ago
      We're going to be more flexible with our monetization in the next few weeks. $20/year for unlimited was a last minute addition to the launch so that we could get feedback like this. We don't want to pigeonhole ourselves into one model just yet. Opening it up for unlimited sending and charging for other actions is definitely on the table.
soghol 15y ago
am using "voice on the go" service for 2 years now. it always was a part of their service (text by voice)
thedjpetersen 15y ago
How is this better than google voice commands?
- Zhenya 15y ago
  Touchless interaction. Google Voice Actions requires you to interact with the phone via touch in most instances.
thedjpetersen 15y ago
How is this better than google voice commands?
buff-a 15y ago
voice recognition != voice comprehension
negamax 15y ago
OMG. Android is the new Linux and iOS new Windows. So jumping the ship to iPhone asap

47 points by sskates 15y ago

swombat 15y ago

Like Siri? Here's something that's nothing like it.

weaksauce 15y ago
Exactly... voice recognition for texting != conversational artificial intelligent assistant. The frustrating thing is that my viewing their website gave them some amount of ad revenue. I want that money going to accurate reporting and insightful blogging.
- bagelicious 15y ago
  I feel like the article was quite accurate--a slightly sensational title, but "Texting-by-Voice" is qualified right there in the title. Given the timing of this app, it's comparison to Siri seems to be quite relevant.
  - bittermang 15y ago
    Not when their common thread is a single feature, voice. Like red trucks? Here's a red bicycle.
funkah 15y ago
Like riding bikes? Here's a wheel.
sskates 15y ago
To diffuse some of this, the comparison to Siri is that it's a conversational voice interface. We're actually surprised that people are picking up that we're optimized for texting while driving and that Siri is a personal assistant (perhaps it's more obvious in retrospect given these comments). Our first expectation was that people would think "oh, how is this different from Siri again, except worse?" and that we'd have a hard time differentiating ourselves.
- buff-a 15y ago
  "Conversational?" Conversational like the automaton I get when I phone my bank? It looks to me that the system is a canned response / limited expected response / state machine that every motherfucker on earth can do. If you want to do marketing bullshit, HN is probably not the best place to do it. We're actually surprised that people are picking up that we're optimized for texting while driving You are? You are surprised that people are picking up on your core selling point? Why? Did you not feed this to them? We're actually surprised that people are picking up that we're optimized for texting while driving and that Siri is a personal assistant Oh, I see. "Gosh, we're surprised that <some really obvious thing> while <some other thing that we wish to be perceived as true but isnt>". It would be great for you if the press would frame the discussion as "sonalight is for texting while driving while siri is a personal assistant", because it then sounds like siri doesn't totally wipe the floor with you when it comes to texting while driving. If only saying such tripe online would make it true - but maybe HN isn't the place to try it.
  - elisee 15y ago
    Come on, this is HN indeed, can't you assume a little good faith? They're here answering questions, trying to learn from potential customers. Have you launched a product? It's easy to call it "marketing bullshit" and move on with your day. Those people have spent time and energy designing their app, and they didn't post an ad, someone (maybe them, who cares?) posted a link on a blog about their product. Just ignore it if you don't care for it.
    - buff-a 15y ago
      If he'd come on here and talked about their marketing strategy, such as how they are having to deal with a vastly superior product but which fortunately their customers don't have access to, then I'd be all over it, and HN would be a great place to discuss it. But to come here and actually attempt such transparent bullshit gets such transparent bullshit pointed out.
  - sskates 15y ago
    Didn't mean to use marketing-speak. When I said conversational, I meant that our app talks to the user, waits for a reply from the user, then does that cycle again, like Siri does. There are a lot of other ways to do voice interaction, like voice actions does (you press a button and then talk and then something pops up) or Vlingo (where the interaction is mostly hands free, but sometimes requires you to press a button). I'm also serious that we thought that people wouldn't understand the differences between us and Siri. I'm not talking about people commenting on HN, I'm talking about someone who casually hears about our app as a "voice app" from a friend, or who glances at the headline on TechCrunch. The differences are in the details of the execution, and they can be subtle, especially if you haven't gotten a chance to use both apps and do a comparison on how they perform at texting-while-driving.

sskates 15y ago

We just launched. Would love HN's feedback (critical or otherwise).

reemrevnivek 15y ago
Your app is nice, but it's nothing like Siri. My dumb phone is an '07 Motorola Razr on Verizon's OS (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_RAZR#Verizon_Wireless_version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_RAZR#Verizon_Wireless_...). It has a button on the side that I press and a computerized voice says "Say a command:" and lists the options: 1. Call <Name> <Loc> 2. Call <Number> 3. Send Text <Name or #> 4. Send Picture <Name or #> 5. Lookup <Name> 6. Go to <App> 7. Check <Item> It only understands these 7 commands. The voice processing wouldn't be good enough to compose a text message, #3 just sets that up for you to key in, but it's doing the job on a 50 MHz single-core ARM9 CPU instead of uploading it to a server somewhere. I have no beliefs that the above task is anything like Siri. Siri is not about turning speech into text. That's been done already, everyone else has a button on their phone that does this, and you're offering them this familiar (and often broken or bad) functionality in an app for Android (Note: I'm not implying that your app is broken or bad). As long as your app is like what people are used to, you'll have a hard time of sales. Once you cross over to the functionality of the well-marketed and Apple-branded Siri, you'll do much better. Based on the description of your features, you're not there yet.
- sskates 15y ago
  Our sense is that people don't want to use speech for everything ever, they'd much rather use their hands and eyes when they're available. We're laser focused on texting while driving right now, it's the one big use case for voice commands. We've done a lot of user testing and have found the biggest problem with voice products now is that people try them twice or three times, and when they don't work they decide to give up on using that product. No one wants to spend time learning a user interface. So we've optimized our product for the first time user experience for texting. We're offering what voice what Dropbox did for cloud storage. There's nothing novel technology wise per se, only that the product is optimized for ease-of-use. With regards to Siri, we're interested to see how it'll perform once it gets released into the wild.

Zhenya 15y ago

Seems a little sneaky/dishonest of you to not mention the 20 incoming(EDIT: should read compose) sms limit for the app, without paying $20/year. Here is the copy from the android market: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sonalight https://market.android.com/details?id=com.sonalight Text by Voice allows you to safely text while you drive entirely through voice. There's no need to touch or look at the screen at all. Text by Voice will automatically read incoming text messages aloud and give you a chance to respond. You can also set an auto responder for incoming text messages, and have Text by Voice start automatically when you start driving. Text by Voice lets you compose texts on the fly. It runs in the background so you can use other apps at the same time. Drive more safely with Text by Voice. Search Keywords Text by Voice, TextbyVoice, Voice Recognition, Speech Recognition, Hands Free, Speech, Text, SMS, Drive, Driving, Text While Driving, Sonalight, Sonalite, Sonilight, Sonilite, Sonolight, Sonolight, Sonarlight, Sonarlite, sona soni sono sonar light lite text by voice textbyvoice Email dev@sonalight.com PHONE SPECIFIC NOTES: -Tested fully with no problems on Motorola Droid, Motorola Droid 2, HTC Evo, HTC Droid Incredible, HTC Droid Incredible 2, Nexus S, and T-Mobile G2 -Samsung Galaxy S microphone has lower quality audio

sskates 15y ago
The limit is only for composing a text. You can receive an unlimited number of texts. Did you get the impression that you could send unlimited texts for free? (serious question- it's not our intention at all)
- Zhenya 15y ago
  Sorry, I definitely meant to write 'composing' not 'incoming'. That is really the impression I got as it's not mentioned anywhere in your description. I was wondering what your monetization scheme would have been. I predict that you will open this up to unlimited texts and charge for other actions.
  - sskates 15y ago
    We're going to be more flexible with our monetization in the next few weeks. $20/year for unlimited was a last minute addition to the launch so that we could get feedback like this. We don't want to pigeonhole ourselves into one model just yet. Opening it up for unlimited sending and charging for other actions is definitely on the table.

soghol 15y ago

am using "voice on the go" service for 2 years now. it always was a part of their service (text by voice)

thedjpetersen 15y ago

How is this better than google voice commands?

Zhenya 15y ago
Touchless interaction. Google Voice Actions requires you to interact with the phone via touch in most instances.

thedjpetersen 15y ago

How is this better than google voice commands?

buff-a 15y ago

voice recognition != voice comprehension

negamax 15y ago

OMG. Android is the new Linux and iOS new Windows. So jumping the ship to iPhone asap