Performing my first voice search with Google Mobile App for iPhone... it worked!
Remember the rumors surrounding the Google Mobile App coming to the iPhone? Well, this morning when I punched a search into the App Store ‘Goog…’ POW, Google Mobile App appeared! The app is completely free, and weighs in at a tiny 1.9MB. Interestingly enough, reviews are mixed if you check out comments in the App Store. As I write this, the average rating of the app is 3.5 stars out of 5.
The app itself is very simple and easy to use. Open her up, and at the bottom you’ll see 3 categories/buttons. Search (which provides you with the powerful Google search), Apps (which provides links to all of Google’s services including Gmail, Calendar, GTalk and more…) and Settings.
One thing you’ll want to do is open up your Settings, and enable ‘Voice Search’. By default after installation this feature is turned off. Once turned on, exit your Settings and hit the Search category. Now, when you’re in the Search section of the app you’ll notice a little microphone in the top right corner! Tap it, and speak your search into your iPhone! So far I’ve found that for best results, you really do need to hold the end of the iPhone with the microphone in it up close to your mouth. Leaving the phone away from your face on the desk or in your hand achieved mixed results… Fool around with it yourself to see what works best.
I’m just getting going on the new Google Mobile App, so stay tuned for more commentary and tips for using Google Mobile App for the iPhone!