Android: Jeannie, formerly Pannous Voice Actions for Android (not to be confused with Google Voice Actions) has always been a solid voice control utility for your Android phone, but the developers have taken a page out of Apple’s book and updated the app. It now has a new name and the ability to hold its own in a conversation with you, the ability to set alarms and send emails, play music, tell jokes, look up the news and search the web.
Jeannie still installs on your phone as Voice Actions, so don’t be surprised if you look for Jeanne in the Android Market but wind up installing “Voice Actions” instead. Once installed and open, the app goes into “chat” mode, where it’s always listening for you to speak commands to it. You can tap the screen to tell Jeannie to stop listening, but while the app is listening you can ask questions like “what’s the weather,” or “what’s the weather in Sydney, Australia” and the app will respond verbally and then wait for the next command. Jeannie can also respond to more esoteric requests like “What is the meaning of life?” and “Tell me a joke.”
Primarily however, Jeannie builds on the inbuilt voice commands and features already available in Android. The app allows you to do everything that Voice Search and Google’s Voice Actions already let you do, but also allows you to control apps, start and stop music or video playback, read a poem to you, translate text or words to or from Spanish, control your phone’s volume, Bluetooth state and Wi-Fi radio all by voice. Plus, the developers behind Jeannie added a little personality and sass that makes Jeannie fun to use.
Jeannie obviously isn’t at the same level of complexity as Siri is on the iPhone, but the app is a big step in the right direction. It’s definitely missing some of the features of previously mentioned Siri-like apps for Android like Vlingo, but it’s worth a try if you’re looking for a mostly hands-off app to interact with.
Jeannie [Android Market]
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