Google updates Voice Actions for Android

To cut down on texting-related car crashes, Google has updated its Voice Search capabilities with Voice Actions for Android. Google’s Voice Search commands were already pretty slick, but now instead of just utilitarian tasks like making a call or searching the web, you can initiate, address, and compose emails and texts with the push of only one button. The update requires Froyo, so if you’re on Android 2.2, you can simply search the market for “Voice Search,” or if you’re browsing on a desktop you can push the link directly to your device from here. Additional actions include navigation commands, opening specific web pages, listening to music, and sending notes to self. Sure, other phones have boasted about their audio command music apps, but the Android version will scour the web for a host of applications in which to do so. I’ve been testing it this afternoon on my Nexus One with great success. If I had to complain about anything, it’d be the speed with which these tasks are undertaken, which is to say that on occasion they can seem rather slow. Small price to pay, however, when one considers the alternative of doing these things with one’s own hands and consequently plowing into a family of six.

[via Lifehacker]