Google Voice Search or Search by Voice is a

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

product that allows users to use

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...

by speaking on a

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

or computer, i.e. have the device search for data upon entering information on what to search into the device by speaking. Initially named as Voice Action which allowed one to give speech commands to an Android phone. Once only available for the U.S. English locale – commands were later recognizable and replied to in American, British, and Indian English; Filipino, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. In Android 4.1+ (Jelly Bean), it was merged with Google Now. In August 2014, a new feature was added to Google Voice Search, allowing users to choose up to five languages and the app will automatically understand the spoken language.

Google Voice Search on Google.com

On June 14, 2011,

announced at its Inside Google Search event that it would start to roll out Voice Search on Google.com during the coming days.van Vliet, Wouter (Tue June 14, 2011
Blog on ilikealot.com about the announcement
/ref>Google (Tue June 14, 2011

/ref> Google rolled out the support, but only for the

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

browser.

History

Google Voice Search was a tool from Google Labs that allowed someone to use their phone to make a

query. After the user called (650) 623-6706, the number of Google Voice's search system, they would wait for the words ''Say your Search Keywords'' and then say the keywords. Next, they would either wait to have the page updated, or click on a link to bring up the search page the user requested. At the moment, both the demo of this service and the page have been shut down. Since the introduction of the service, products from Google, such as GOOG-411,

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

and Google Mobile App, have been developed to use speech recognition technology in various ways. On October 30, 2012, Google released a new Google Search app for iOS, which featured an enhanced Google Voice Search function, similar to that of the Voice Search function found in Google's Android Jelly Bean and aimed to compete with Apple's own

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

voice assistant. The new app has been compared favorably by reviewers to Siri and The Unofficial Apple Weblog's side-by-side comparison said that Google's Voice Search on iOS is "amazingly quick and relevant, and has more depth han Siri. Of note is that as of May 2016 20% of search queries on mobile devices were done through voice with the number expected to grow.

Supported languages

The following languages and variants are partially supported in Google Voice Search: * Abaza since 2021 *

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

since 2010 * Albanian since 2020 * Amharic since 2017 *

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

since 2006 *

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

since 2017 * Azerbaijani since 2017 *

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

since 2012 * Bangla since 2017 * Bulgarian since 2012 * Burmese since 2018 * Catalan since 2012 * Czech since 2010 * Danish since 2014 * Dutch since 2010 * English (

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, UK, US), some variants since 2008 launch * Filipino since 2013 * Finnish since 2012 * French since 2010 * Galician since 2012 * Georgian since 2017 * German since 2010 * Greek since 2014 * Gujarati since 2017 *

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

since 2011 *

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

since 2008 * Hungarian since 2012 * Icelandic since 2012 * Italian since 2010 * Indonesian since 2011 * Japanese since 2009 * Javanese since 2017 *

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

since 2017 * Korean since 2010 * Khmer since 2017 * Kurdish since 2021 * Kyrgyz since 2022 * Lao since 2017 *

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

* Latvian since 2017 * Lithuanian since 2015 * Luxembourgish since 2020 * Macedonian since 2020 *

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

(Traditional Taiwan, Simplified China, Traditional Hong Kong) since 2009 * Malay since 2011 *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

since 2017 * Marathi since 2017 * Mongolian since 2020 * Myanmar (Burmese) since 2017 * Nepali since 2017 * Norwegian since 2012 * Persian since 2013 * Polish since 2010 * Pig Latin since April 1, 2011 but it was actually added and not just because of

April Fools' Day April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. ...

, although it is not officially listed * Portuguese ( Brazilian; European since 2012) * Punjabi since 2020 * Romanian since 2012 * Russian since 2010 * Serbian since 2012 * Sindhi since 2021 * Sinhala since 2017 * Slovak since 2012 * Spanish (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, US, Uruguay, Venezuela) since 2010 and Latin American Spanish since 2011 * Sundanese since 2017 * Swahili since 2017 * Swedish since 2012 * Tamil since 2017 * Telugu since 2017 * Turkish since 2010 *

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

since 2017 * Uzbek since 2018 *

Yue Chinese Yue () is a branch of the Sinitic languages primarily spoken in Northern and southern China, Southern China, particularly in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi (collectively known as Liangguang). The term Cantonese is often used to refer ...

(Traditional Hong Kong) since 2010 * Zulu since 2010 * Vietnamese since 2015

Integration in other Google products

Google Maps with voice search

In the summer of 2008, Google added voice search to the BlackBerry Pearl version of Google Maps for mobile, allowing Pearl users to say their searches in addition to typing them. See http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/maps.html for more information.

Google Mobile App with voice search

The Google Mobile app for Blackberry and Nokia (Symbian) mobiles allows users to search Google by voice at the touch of a button by speaking their queries. See http://www.google.com/mobile/apple/app.html for more information. Google also introduced voice search to all "Google Experience" Android phones with the 1.1 platform update, which includes the functionality on board the built-in Google Search widget. In November 2008, Google added voice search to Google Mobile App on iPhone. With a later update, Google announced Voice Search for iPod touch. It requires a third party microphone. On August 5, 2009, T-Mobile launched the MyTouch 3G with Google, which features one-touch Google Voice Search.

Google Voice Search in YouTube

Since March 2010, a beta-grade derivation of Google Voice Search is used on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

to provide optional automatic text caption annotations of videos in the case that annotations are not provided. This feature is geared to the hearing-impaired and, at present, is only available for use by English-speaking users.

References

External links

* {{Google LLC Voice Search Voice over IP 2012 software Internet properties established in 2012