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SHAPE Services teams up with Yap to add speech recognition to IM+

Categories: Applications
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 1:45 AM

IM+SHAPE Services has partnered with Yap, the company behind the first fully automated voice-to-text platform, to add a speech recognition feature to its instant messaging client – IM+ for BlackBerry smartphones.

From the press release:

IM+ with speech recognition will allow users to dictate their instant messages and send them as text to their contacts in Facebook, AIM/iChat, MSN/Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo!, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk and MySpaceIM. Recent studies indicate that over 70% of consumers prefer using voice to interact with their mobile devices rather than typing. Speech-enablement increases message creation speed and greatly improves the usability of instant messaging on mobile devices.

The beta version of the app was showcased at the recently ended Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) in Orlando, Florida, and the full release is expected at the end of May 2009. Then, once the BlackBerry version hits the market, we’ve no doubts SHAPE will release version of the app for other platforms, as well…

About The Author

Dusan Belic

Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.