5 ms·

This is Next Level Shit. This is absolutely next level execution. The responsiveness is incredible and it immediately falls through to a well-formatted search r

by jpxxx 14y ago

This is Next Level Shit. This is absolutely next level execution. The responsiveness is incredible and it immediately falls through to a well-formatted search result if it can't give you a soundbyte or a Knowledge Graph result. Unit conversions provide in-line converter widgets... it'll gleefully show you pictures of anything safe-search while playing dumb if you search for something "naughty"... web links you select pile up in little tabs that let you slide right back to the original query... it looks good... it makes pleasing sounds that let you know what's happening... If Siri can stage a question to Wolfram Alpha, the result is great. But if she can't, she just lamely offers a button to (Search the web for ______?) that then kicks you out to Safari. Google voice search makes Siri feel clunky. The voice recognition is verging on instantaneous. This is amazing work.

symesc 14y ago
Agreed. I'm running an iPhone 4. The speech recognition almost keeps up to my speech in real time. The results are typical Google. This application gave me one of those "sufficiently advanced technology" moments. Magic.
- pzyz 14y ago
  ok,fuck you clear and loud.
- niels_olson 14y ago
  agreed. I want this to be the triple-click function on my iPhone 4.
stcredzero 14y ago
> This is Next Level Shit. This is absolutely next level execution. Crashed the first time I tried it.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  And thus a million server blades evaporated into the night, taking my precious opinion with them. Reboot your fucking phone and try again.
  - tyxl 14y ago
    Not everyone has the same experience as you, jackass.
antonioevans 14y ago
Sorry Siri... You've got a new big brother in my opinion.
jonknee 14y ago
Indeed. I really wish there was a way to use this instead of Siri with the standard home button shortcut. Pretty much all it's missing is a way to do basic phone interaction (call X, text Y, remind me tomorrow) which should be pretty simple considering they apparently have real time voice recognition.
- adhipg 14y ago
  It's not simple on iOS since iOS simply does not allow it.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    You can get pretty close, the tel URL scheme will let you make calls. MFMessageComposeViewController will let you send texts. Calendar stuff is already possible with Google Calendar so that could work pretty easily.
    - thefreeman 14y ago
      Its not that they couldnt do it. Its that they are expressely prohibited by apples patents. ( something about a unified search interface for your phone as well as the web )
      - akosner 14y ago
        Can you site a source here? That's an important distinction.
        ichthyos 14y ago
        Here's an editorial that gives an overview of how the patent was relevant in the Apple v. Samsung case earlier this year, along with a link to the patent itself: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/07/25/editorial-samsung-has-given-up-on-fighting-apples-unified-search-patent-where-do-we-go-from-here-google/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/07/25/editorial-samsung-ha...
ashishgandhi 14y ago
> The voice recognition is verging on instantaneous. Exactly! Shows you how much it has recognized as you speak. Immediate feedback. More important is the speed of getting back results. Google Now is certainly a little faster in that regard as well. Reminded me of a 21 questions test with Siri and Google Now (on a Nexus with Android 4.1 I think) side by side as they listened simultaneously. It's interesting to see how both perform in different scenarios. Generally when Google search has the answer Google Now is a little faster. When Google search doesn't have a direct answer Google Now boils down to Google Search results - right there - as opposed to an offer to do a web search. In my experience Siri tends to have an answer more often. The general theme was: 1. Questions that get answered by Wolfram Alpha were slower on Siri. In one test Wolfram Alpha didn't have an answer and Siri offered a web search where as Google's graph did have an answer. 2. For requests like "Call BestBuy" Siri looked up BestBuy stores and offered you the choice of which one to call where as Google Now said there were no numbers for BestBuy in the phonebook. 3. Sports questions (which I don't quite care about personally, sorry) tend to be answered way better by Siri. I remember a question about which sports personalities was taller and Siri had an direct answer with other stats whereas Google Now was a list of search result links - no ads yet. It was the same thing for another sports trivia question. 4. Siri would sometimes have to wait - almost like a timeout - on a response from Apple. Google Now didn't face such issues. 5. In some case Siri would take a little longer but give back more information - when you talk about restaurants it'll include reviews, price range and distance. Source: http://youtu.be/z_pclCFpjgw http://youtu.be/z_pclCFpjgw (video)
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  >> "Exactly! Shows you how much it has recognized as you speak." That's the one thing about it I didn't like. The fact that I could see a mistake made me want to try and correct it (but I don't see any obvious way to say 'that last word is incorrect').
  - SquareWheel 14y ago
    If it acts like Android voice recognition, it is smart enough to correct speech on the fly.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
The voice recognition is outstanding but every query I'm trying (sports, news, weather) is returning text results. In a situation where I'm using voice recognition I need it to read the response back to me, without that it's next to useless. Am I missing something? Or is it the things I'm asking?
- TrevorJ 14y ago
  I think you have to phrase it in the form of a question in order to get a voice response. Things like "How many meters in a mile", "Did the Tigers win?" and "What is the weather like?" all came up with an audible reply for me.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  Try something with a one-shot answer like "When was the constitution of Argentina ratified"? It should speak assuming the latest Google app version.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    I've tried weather in Glasgow, the time in San Francisco and a bunch of other very simple stuff.
- sciwiz 14y ago
  I believe for the app to talk back, your language settings have to be set to "US English". That's how it is on Android.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    Seems to be this. Which is odd. I see no reason why English UK (or "actual" English as I like to think of it ;-) ) couldn't use English UK for recognition but speak back as if it were English US. As it is it becomes unworkable set to English US it doesn't recognise stuff at all well with my accent, and English UK doesn't read stuff back which means that it's of massively limited use. So great if you're in the US, for the rest of us, still a (very impressive) work in progress.
baddox 14y ago
I agree with everything you've said, but unfortunately, it still just won't be used on my iPhone. There's no way I will launch the Google app then click on the microphone icon. Replace Siri with this and I'll use it, but as long as it's a separate app on my phone it won't get used.
- coffeedrinker 14y ago
  I will; I have an iPhone 4.
wamatt 14y ago
Woah.. this may be one of the few times so many hyperbolic adjectives in a HN post seemed justified ;) Just fired it up now, and can attest it simply blows Siri's UX right out of the water. Kudo's to the Google team!
speleding 14y ago
Well, it's great for search, but things that people use Siri mostly for are "please call X", "please remind me to do Y" or "make an appointment for Z". As long as the Google app cannot interface with Contacts, Reminders or Calendar, this is just an interesting tech demo and nowhere near a Siri replacement.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  Exactly. I am amazed that so few people get this. It's not about speed or accuracy, but rather about being tightly integrated with other apps on the phone.
- onemoreanimal 14y ago
  +1. Voice recognition is mainly about hands-free utility; interacting with the phone's features and functions. Google's implementation is impressive, but it will just be something fun to show off for now.

by jpxxx 14y ago

symesc 14y ago

Agreed. I'm running an iPhone 4. The speech recognition almost keeps up to my speech in real time. The results are typical Google. This application gave me one of those "sufficiently advanced technology" moments. Magic.

pzyz 14y ago
ok,fuck you clear and loud.
niels_olson 14y ago
agreed. I want this to be the triple-click function on my iPhone 4.

stcredzero 14y ago

> This is Next Level Shit. This is absolutely next level execution. Crashed the first time I tried it.

jpxxx 14y ago
And thus a million server blades evaporated into the night, taking my precious opinion with them. Reboot your fucking phone and try again.
- tyxl 14y ago
  Not everyone has the same experience as you, jackass.

antonioevans 14y ago

Sorry Siri... You've got a new big brother in my opinion.

jonknee 14y ago

Indeed. I really wish there was a way to use this instead of Siri with the standard home button shortcut. Pretty much all it's missing is a way to do basic phone interaction (call X, text Y, remind me tomorrow) which should be pretty simple considering they apparently have real time voice recognition.

adhipg 14y ago
It's not simple on iOS since iOS simply does not allow it.
- jonknee 14y ago
  You can get pretty close, the tel URL scheme will let you make calls. MFMessageComposeViewController will let you send texts. Calendar stuff is already possible with Google Calendar so that could work pretty easily.
  - thefreeman 14y ago
    Its not that they couldnt do it. Its that they are expressely prohibited by apples patents. ( something about a unified search interface for your phone as well as the web )
    - akosner 14y ago
      Can you site a source here? That's an important distinction.
      - ichthyos 14y ago
        Here's an editorial that gives an overview of how the patent was relevant in the Apple v. Samsung case earlier this year, along with a link to the patent itself: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/07/25/editorial-samsung-has-given-up-on-fighting-apples-unified-search-patent-where-do-we-go-from-here-google/ http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/07/25/editorial-samsung-ha...

ashishgandhi 14y ago

> The voice recognition is verging on instantaneous. Exactly! Shows you how much it has recognized as you speak. Immediate feedback. More important is the speed of getting back results. Google Now is certainly a little faster in that regard as well. Reminded me of a 21 questions test with Siri and Google Now (on a Nexus with Android 4.1 I think) side by side as they listened simultaneously. It's interesting to see how both perform in different scenarios. Generally when Google search has the answer Google Now is a little faster. When Google search doesn't have a direct answer Google Now boils down to Google Search results - right there - as opposed to an offer to do a web search. In my experience Siri tends to have an answer more often. The general theme was: 1. Questions that get answered by Wolfram Alpha were slower on Siri. In one test Wolfram Alpha didn't have an answer and Siri offered a web search where as Google's graph did have an answer. 2. For requests like "Call BestBuy" Siri looked up BestBuy stores and offered you the choice of which one to call where as Google Now said there were no numbers for BestBuy in the phonebook. 3. Sports questions (which I don't quite care about personally, sorry) tend to be answered way better by Siri. I remember a question about which sports personalities was taller and Siri had an direct answer with other stats whereas Google Now was a list of search result links - no ads yet. It was the same thing for another sports trivia question. 4. Siri would sometimes have to wait - almost like a timeout - on a response from Apple. Google Now didn't face such issues. 5. In some case Siri would take a little longer but give back more information - when you talk about restaurants it'll include reviews, price range and distance. Source: http://youtu.be/z_pclCFpjgw http://youtu.be/z_pclCFpjgw (video)

k-mcgrady 14y ago
>> "Exactly! Shows you how much it has recognized as you speak." That's the one thing about it I didn't like. The fact that I could see a mistake made me want to try and correct it (but I don't see any obvious way to say 'that last word is incorrect').
- SquareWheel 14y ago
  If it acts like Android voice recognition, it is smart enough to correct speech on the fly.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago

The voice recognition is outstanding but every query I'm trying (sports, news, weather) is returning text results. In a situation where I'm using voice recognition I need it to read the response back to me, without that it's next to useless. Am I missing something? Or is it the things I'm asking?

TrevorJ 14y ago
I think you have to phrase it in the form of a question in order to get a voice response. Things like "How many meters in a mile", "Did the Tigers win?" and "What is the weather like?" all came up with an audible reply for me.
jpxxx 14y ago
Try something with a one-shot answer like "When was the constitution of Argentina ratified"? It should speak assuming the latest Google app version.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  I've tried weather in Glasgow, the time in San Francisco and a bunch of other very simple stuff.
sciwiz 14y ago
I believe for the app to talk back, your language settings have to be set to "US English". That's how it is on Android.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  Seems to be this. Which is odd. I see no reason why English UK (or "actual" English as I like to think of it ;-) ) couldn't use English UK for recognition but speak back as if it were English US. As it is it becomes unworkable set to English US it doesn't recognise stuff at all well with my accent, and English UK doesn't read stuff back which means that it's of massively limited use. So great if you're in the US, for the rest of us, still a (very impressive) work in progress.

baddox 14y ago

I agree with everything you've said, but unfortunately, it still just won't be used on my iPhone. There's no way I will launch the Google app then click on the microphone icon. Replace Siri with this and I'll use it, but as long as it's a separate app on my phone it won't get used.

coffeedrinker 14y ago
I will; I have an iPhone 4.

wamatt 14y ago

Woah.. this may be one of the few times so many hyperbolic adjectives in a HN post seemed justified ;) Just fired it up now, and can attest it simply blows Siri's UX right out of the water. Kudo's to the Google team!

speleding 14y ago

Well, it's great for search, but things that people use Siri mostly for are "please call X", "please remind me to do Y" or "make an appointment for Z". As long as the Google app cannot interface with Contacts, Reminders or Calendar, this is just an interesting tech demo and nowhere near a Siri replacement.

enraged_camel 14y ago
Exactly. I am amazed that so few people get this. It's not about speed or accuracy, but rather about being tightly integrated with other apps on the phone.
onemoreanimal 14y ago
+1. Voice recognition is mainly about hands-free utility; interacting with the phone's features and functions. Google's implementation is impressive, but it will just be something fun to show off for now.