Most Google Android handsets include voice recognition features. Basically whenever you’re in an app that requires text input, you can hit the microphone icon on the keyboard and talk into the phone’s mic. Android will try to convert your speech to text, saving you the trouble of typing.
But Vlingo takes voice input to another level, with its new app for Android. Vlingo adds a widget to your home screen which you can tap to launch a voice input box. Then you can tell your phone to perform all sorts of different actions.
For example, you can say “Send message to <contact>” and then speak a message to launch the txt message app and fill in the To and Message boxes. You can say “Twitter update,” followed by a message to launch the Twitter app and post a status update.
Vlingo doesn’t just do speech to text. It also has a speech to text feature called SafeReader which will read incoming text messages and other notifications to you, which could come in handy if you’re in the car or somewhere else where you shouldn’t be fumbling with your phone.
Vlingo should be available for $9.99 from the Android Market — but I wasn’t able to find it when I checked a few minutes ago.
The app should run on Android 2.2 and newer devices.
Vlingo also offers apps for iPhone, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Windows Mobile devices.
