Android voice actions just became even more awesome. There are now a hful of third-party apps that will respond to specific voice comms.
Say, “OK , Shazam this song” into your phone, for example, seconds later Shazam is open identifying the music you’re hearing. That’s much easier than fumbling with a touchscreen hoping to get Shazam going before the song ends.
eviously, you could only use voice actions to open third-party apps, using comms such as, “OK , Open Shazam.” ‘s first-party apps have had their own custom voice actions for some time. For example, you can tell ay Music to play a specific song or navigate to a specific place with Maps.
For a comprehensive list of voice actions check out our list of all the Now voice comms.
Right now, the number of third-party apps that work with Android voice actions are extremely limited. didn’t announce a specific number in its announcement on the Android Developers + page; however, ‘s support page for voice actions lists twelve apps:
- Flixster: “Show me Inception on Flixster.”
- Instacart: “Show instacart availability.”
- ncoln: “Start my ncoln MKZ.”
- N One: “sten to N.”
- Realtor.com: “Show rentals near me on Realtor.”
- Shazam: “Shazam this song.”
- TripAdvisor: “Show attractions near me on TripAdvisor.”
- Trulia: “Show homes for sale in Boston on Trulia.”
- TuneIn Radio: “Open TuneIn in car mode.”
- lmart: “Scan my receipt on lmart.”
- nk: “Activate home mode on nk.”
- Zillow: “Show me open houses nearby on Zillow.”
probably should’ve lined up a stronger app selection to debut such a killer feature, but maybe too many app devs are busy getting their Now cards ready for primetime.
The impact on you at home: is on a roll integrating third-party apps into Android. Bringing third-party comms to voice actions follows the expansion of Now cards from third-party apps. Voice actions, however, are by far the more exciting feature. Getting traffic updates workout reminders in Now is nice, but it’s nothing like telling Flixster to start playing a specific movie or starting a ncoln with a voice comm.
Custom voice actions
The new third-party voice actions are part of a new feature is testing called Custom Voice Actions. This appears to be an A that developers can use to harness the power of ‘s voice actions to carry out comms specific to individual apps.
It’s not clear if plans to open up its A to all third-party apps or if it will slowly add specific partners over time as it is doing with Now cards.
