Google Now Detects Accents & Mimics

Google Now is still a half measure for many Android users, the cards look like the most potent part of the program, but the voice recognition service still needs a bit of work. A new feature looks to make it easier for multiple language users to swap over on the fly.

The new system allows users to add more than one language, swapping from one another on the fly. This could allow localisation for user’s who move country often. Google Now can even detect accent change, as one video shows.

Moving from English (UK) and English (US) is completely impractical for anyone, but does show the voice recognition service has a good understanding of accent, something Apple’s Siri has not been great at detecting, especially stronger English accents.

Accents are a hard thing for programmers to understand, voice recognition naturally works with one voice, but Google is looking to add multiple languages and accents. This means Google needs to take more real world accents and voices, to get the practical information needed.

Google Now and voice recognition in general is still a questionable service, but there are some uses like taking notes, setting dates and asking for travel times. Google, Apple and other voice recognition services just need to fan out some of the clutter in their services.

The secondary language option is available now, but not to everyone. Google is restricting it to some countries and it may take a while for them to update it on all Android devices.