My New Smartphone Seems Less Smart

December 20, 2012 7:26 AM

On my last smartphone, I could push a button, say "Find pizza" and the phone would bring up a map showing all the local pizzerias. Or "Find 300 Commonwealth Avenue" and it would show me a map with my destination and where I was. Now when I say "Find pizza" my phone instead does an internet search for pizza. If it is a more specific command, often the internet search will lead me to an option to find the selected item using Google Maps instead. But it's still a little annoying that I have to choose things with my finger instead of my voice.

My question is this: what are the voice commands for the Galaxy S2 phone? Are there different keywords that will change what search is conducted? For example, as a former programmer, it seems likely (and in keeping with the logical mindset we have) that saying something like "Search for X" might call up a map of local Xs, "Find X" might be the keyword for an internet search of X, and "Navigate to X" would activate the GPS navigator.

The trouble is that I don't know what the specific voice commands are for the S2 phone, and the instruction manual is woefully inadequate. Can somebody please enlighten me?

posted by wolfdreams01 to Technology (4 answers total)

Best answer: If you want to directly search on a map, use "map of ____".

Here's a full list of the voice action commands.
posted by dobi at 7:36 AM on December 20, 2012 [4 favorites]

Note that third-party programs can also be operated by voice commands, if they're built for it; for instance, "Listen to X" or "Play X" opens a Youtube search by default, but if you have a music player like Winamp or Doubletwist installed, you can use the same command to cue up a song from your library.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:49 AM on December 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Dobi, you are my new hero.

Thank you both! This is perfect and exactly what I was looking for.
posted by wolfdreams01 at 7:57 AM on December 20, 2012

For posterity I think there should be some mention of Android in this question or its tags, since it's a question about a feature of the Android smartphone OS.
posted by contraption at 10:04 AM on December 20, 2012 [2 favorites]