Now voice comms are incredibly useful for setting reminders, making notes to yourself, getting the weather, or doing an online search. Yet has not added much in the way of hardware control via Now’s “OK ” phrase.

Right now you can use Now voice comms to open your camera in photo or video mode, navigate directly to parts of the Settings app, that’s about it.

To overcome this Now deficiency—at least until exps its capabilities—a new free app called Commr is filling the gap. Built by Senanayake—the developer behind Open Mic+ for Now—Commr uses Now’s “note to self” comm as a workaround to get the job done with no device rooting required.

Once Commr is installed set-up, all you have to do is say “OK , note to self turn on flashlight.” A few seconds later, your camera’s flash will illuminate your path through the darkness—hardware permitting.

For developers, Now has no official third-party support with the exception of the “note to self” comm. Thus Commr’s workaround is the only way to use voice comms via Now without rooting your device or using hacks that could shut down at a moment’s notice. 

First time Commr

Before you can use Commr, the app requires a little bit of set-up. To start you have to manually choose Commr as the default “note to self” app. Then you have to reselect whatever your default app is for taking actual notes.

Finally, Commr has a one-screen tutorial that teaches you how to use the app. To pass the tutorial you have to manually type in the phrase that will get Commr to work for a given comm such as, “Okay note to self pause music.”

Commr currently has a limited set of built-in comms, but most people should find them useful:

• Turn On/Off Bluetooth
• Turn On/Off Flashlight
• Turn On/Off G
• Turn On/Off -Fi
• Next Song
• use Music
• evious Song
• Resume Music

In addition to its built-in comms, Commr is also compatible with the popular automation app Tasker.

One unfortunate side effect of Commr is that making a real note to self is a little clumsy, “Okay note to self note…” But that’s the price you pay for using a workaround.

Commr also lets you toggle off any of the built-in comms you don’t want to use by opening the app tapping Built-in Comms. This screen will also tell you whether some features aren’t working due to the hardware limitations of your device. My Nexus 4, for example, won’t work with Commr’s G On/Off option.

Shortcomings aside, Commr will be a very useful app for anyone who wants to control their phone’s basic hardware features, hs-free.

Commr works with Android 4.1 up.

[via Android Authority]