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. 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.
