The Google App’s New Voice

[Arthur]

If you’ve ever pressed the little mic in the Google app and talked to Google, you’ve probably heard a computer voice that talks back to you. We heard that there was a team at Google creating a new voice, and we jumped at the chance (and into the recording booth) to learn how they made it.

 

 

Interested in more?

 

Here’s a link to a little demo video that we made so you can hear the new voice in action.

 

[Arthur]

In addition to updating the voice used in Google's apps, they also opened up access to their speech recognition API last week.

 

Google opens access to its speech recognition API, going head to head with Nuance

 

Google is planning to compete with Nuance and other voice recognition companies head on by opening up its speech recognition API to third-party developers. To attract developers, the app will be free at launch with pricing to be introduced at a later date.

 

The Google Cloud Speech API, which will cover over 80 languages and will work with any application in real-time streaming or batch mode, will offer full set of APIs for applications to “see, hear and translate,” Google says. It is based on the same neural network tech that powers Google’s voice search in the Google app and voice typing in Google’s Keyboard. There are some other interesting features, such as working in noisy environments and in real-time.

 

Google’s move will have a large impact on the industry as a whole — and particularly on Nuance, the company long thought of as offering the best voice recognition capabilities in the business, and most certainly the biggest offering such services. A number of Nuance customers, including startups, could leave it in favor of Google’s technology, which not only offers an improved experience over current providers, but will also be made available at a lower cost.

 

To attract developer interest initially, the API will be completely free to use. Over time, the API will be paid, but likely have low-cost pricing tiers, we understand. Google may choose to raise those prices over time, after it becomes the dominant player in the industry.

[Arthur]