Is Voice Access really this bad, or is my phone haunted?

mouseless@kbin.social to Android@lemmy.world – 57 points –

if youre unfamiliar, its an accessibility app made by google, for controlling your phone with your voice. this is different to the “OK google” thing.

I’m disabled, and I avoided owning a phone for many years because they’re so painful to use. but this year I finally had to get one, so I got a samsung s10e. but this voice access app is just... terrible? its really buggy, struggles to understand me way worse than Talon (a PC voice control program), and loves to do things I don’t tell it to.

it also doesn’t even make my phone fully accessible, theres tons of gestures it just can’t do, and I can’t add custom ones.

basically... am I doing something wrong? is there some trick I don’t know about? or is android accessibility really this bad? is there anything I can do?

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I've found on budget/older phones voice recognition is useless, I recommend something more modern of you can afford it, maybe a flagship from a year or two ago

is that the case even with a mic plugged in? I get similarly bad results with an external mic (though I haven’t tested a high end one, still saving for an upgrade)

unfortunately this phone is about as good as I could afford, I’m living well under the poverty line and $200 AUD (what I paid for the s10e, got it used with some scratches) is a big deal lol

Oh, you're also Australian. Yeah that explains part of a potential accent understanding problem then. I never tried with an external mic, but even in a very quiet room it wasn't always 100%. I found that the "Use verbs" setting was helpful to address some of that, because it limits the potential dictionary matching results. If you know you have shonky WiFi too, that can play a part.

Also, make sure in your phone settings under "General Management" then "Keyboard list and default" that you have set your Google Voice Typing language to Australian. I still have to be real slow and deliberate, but it's a bit better.

No worries on the expensive part, I hear you. It's shameful that the support for assistive tech on Android cuts off at about the point that the people who need it can afford it.

ill give those tips a try, thank you!!

I’ve had a lifetime of being on the shit end of the stick when it comes to “why can’t the person who needs X get it”, it really sucks. like “just buy an iphone” is what I was told asking around elsewhere and like... my guy, an iphone is basically a month of my income (before spending a cent on rent, bills, food...)

I just hope that bad things happen to the people who uphold the oppressive systems that keep me down. thats all :)

I hear you. DSP does not pay anywhere near enough, especially with how much medical stuff costs these days and close to no bulk-billing doctors left. And physical stuff like even basic switches are ridiculously expensive, even more with the NDIS rorting companies are doing. Assistive tech physical and socio-economic accessibility is something I've been angry about thinking a lot about lately.

looks into camera dramatically yeah DSP money sucks, good thing I can’t get it :)

I’m in the jobseeker hell until I get an assessment redone, which is an “indefinite wait plus at least a year” away. which is fine, its not like my wheelchair is half as old as I am or anything

Ugh, I am so sorry, even if I'm not at all shocked to hear that. Our society treats people shamefully, even if it's still much better than many other places.

I've actually found voice recognition to be worse than it was prior to Android 12. As soon as I got that update, it started having more errors.

It could be coincidentally in line with you getting gunk in your mic or something. Or it could be that your particular phone doesn't handle android 12 very well. I've had less issue with voice recognition on android 12 and 13. Maybe try re-training the voice model.

I have one of the newest Google pixels, so it's probably not that. I've retrained it a couple of times and gave up. 🤷‍♂️

I swear, google's quality control on the pixels is just bad. I had a Pixel 5a, when I got it, the phone was a year old. Out of the box it was slow, I tried so many things to get it working correctly and it just never did. Then 7 months in it just died.

After a ton of back and forth with support and them trying to tell me I had water damage when I didn't, I finally got another Pixel 5a. That one works super well in comparison. I didn't use it much because I was so fed up with the whole debacle with Google that I switched to an Asus Zenfone 9. But the little I did use it, it was faster than the other 5a ever was.

My first pixel 5a almost never picked up my "ok Google"s whereas my Asus Zenfone 9 works while it's playing music full volume, or while I'm playing music in the car, and a ton of other situations where my pixel and my galaxy s9 I had before never did. It's so odd.

That being said, the Zenfone is way worse at shazaming things for some reason. I definitely think it's not only a per phone model basis but also a per singular phone basis thing.

Yeah, I've had three Pixels now and I won't be getting another. I mostly just went with them because I need something small (and even their a series Pixels are not really small).

I recommend the Asus Zenfone line, flagship processor for a reasonable price (relatively speaking) in a small form factor. It's a godsend for someone like me with small hands. I've had mine for a year or so and I really love it! And I hear the Asus Zenphine 10 is even better.

I am actually planning to get that when the new one comes out. Thanks for the recommendation, though!

maybe a flagship from a year or two ago

Is that not what an S10e is?

Sadly no, s10e launched March 2019, 4 years ago and was specifically the non-flagship price compromise version of the s10 and s10+.

I wish a couple of years didn't make a big a difference as it does.

Well, yes and no, good phone from 4 years ago it's still very usable now, unlike 6-7 years ago, before Xiaomi showed the world budget phones don't have to be shitty

Not to mention that it isn’t dependent on the phone since it’s a standard android app

Standard Android app on a Samsung implementation of an Android OS UI. These things are not as deeply intertwined as they might seem. Not even the different Android Accessibility apps and settings are guaranteed to work well together, because they're often made by entirely different teams.