Google Updates For Android: Voice Activated Camera & Personalized Keyboard Suggestions Arrive

By: Unknown on 12:07 AM

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Google announced two back-to-back updates for Android that address two of the common tasks you do with your mobile.

Google Search app for Android now helps you launch your smartphone camera with a voice command. Try the two new “Ok Google” commands – say “take a photo” or “take a video“. The voice command launches the camera in the preferred mode. You can also tap the microphone icon and say the magic words instead of triggering the search app with the default “Ok Google” command. It’s just another way of launching the camera quickly, and could save you a few seconds here and there. If you already use Google Now, it shouldn’t be too much of a change.

Add these Google Now commands to the “Listen to TV” voice command which helps you listen to any playing music. Google’s servers go to work to return the song title, artist, album name and more. The Shazam-like feature was announced by Google in tune with the American Idol show. This is a U.S. specific feature for a U.S. specific show. Google says:

Now that you know what song it is, you can listen to other renditions and see if tonight’s performer deserves your vote.

Turn off the mic. Tap the keyboard.

Google Keyboard app for Android has improved suggestions and corrections by integrating data from your usage of other Google apps and services. Google stores the data locally. Users have the option to switch off the feature or delete the data from their device.

The update doesn’t mention the feature explicitly. When you open the updated version of the app for the first time, the information on the new predictive feature and instructions on how to turn it off are displayed. The change log on Google Play only goes with the generalized improvements for personalized suggestions, corrections and completions.