Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 I think stuff like that depends on the launcher. Though I'm pretty sure even with TouchWiz and Nova Search (now Now) has always been a long press of the menu button. For hardware buttons I do believe it's tied to the launcher since you can change what the long presses do. Haven't messed with it on virtual buttons though. Apparently one way to speed up the response time of the home button on the S4 is to disable S-Voice so you use google services instead. I'm actually a big fan of how it's handled on the virtual buttons on my N4. You swipe up on the home icon to go into Google Search/Now and then just say "Google" to start voice actions. Also allows for easy searching without voice of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 Isn't Google supposed to have a competition for Siri in Android? Or is the S voice the only option? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 Google Now is the closest thing I've seen. It doesn't do everything Siri does but it can still make calls with voice commands, answer questions, and a few other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 I wish I could integrate that with the double tap of the home screen then. Nothing against S voice but I mainly use it for setting up alarms. And it lacks a personality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 You can. Download an app called Home 2 shortcut. Remember to go into the S-voice settings first and disable it on the double tap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 HmMMmMmmMM, MhmHmJMJMMhMH. Will do Oh Captain my Captain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 Oh and make sure you set Step 3 to Touchwiz Home inside of Home2 or else it will forget that hitting home once is supposed to take you to the homepage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 You have to do all of that to get rid of S-Voice and use the much better feature?Does the S4 even have Google Now? That's like half the point of buying a new Android phone. Also, in many aspects it's better than Siri, but Siri is better at more conversational commands. The number of commands is pretty huge these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 You can still USE it, but if you want Google Now to come up instead of S-voice when you tap the home button twice than yes, you do have to do all of that. And I'm pretty sure the S4 has it. Anything running Jellybean should have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 I've just read some stuff recently about some of the manufacturers versions not having stuff like Lockscreen Widgets or Google Now despite being on the proper Android version. I can't remember specifically so don't take my word for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 http://exzacklyright.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/google-now-tips-and-tricks.html A bunch of Google Now commands if you're wanting them. Came across it other day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 If Google Now is what I'm thinking of, I can go to it by holding the home screen and then pressing the g. So there might not be a need to overcomplicate it for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 It should be a much quicker shortcut than that. Doing things that way seems so... 2.3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 You can get to it a number of ways, it's basically Search but fancier. On my phone (Note) it's either via the long-press of menu key, the Search app icon on home or in draw, from the recent apps (holding down home key as you mentioned), via Search Bar added via launcher (I have it off), via home button (launcher dependant) or gestures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 Actually yeah I just realized I've had the google now widget [the search bar in the home screen] this whole time. So yeah that's probably just as fast As double tapping since I spend most of my time in the home screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 You can get to it a number of ways, it's basically Search but fancier. On my phone (Note) it's either via the long-press of menu key, the Search app icon on home or in draw, from the recent apps (holding down home key as you mentioned), via Search Bar added via launcher (I have it off), via home button (launcher dependant) or gestures. Now that I think about it, I think the long press of the menu key was how I accesssed it on my EVO 3D. Though menu keys should not exist anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 10, 2013 Report Share Posted May 10, 2013 lol I just accessed it via the long menu pause too. Thanks for the tip, mystery solved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luftwaffles Posted May 11, 2013 Report Share Posted May 11, 2013 On my Nexus 7 I can hold the home button and move it upward and it launches Google Now. I'm not sure if that's a system-wide thing or exclusive to the Nexus 7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2013 http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/05/11/google-play-games-leaks-out-in-all-its-glory-ahead-of-google-io-hello-cloud-game-saves-apk-teardown/ Android is finally getting a proper games service. Hopefully this also means games won't appear in the regular Apps listing anymore too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted May 12, 2013 Report Share Posted May 12, 2013 One thing I do like about Windows Phone is the way it handles games - they're all launched from within the games app which has the achievements and game requests in it (sounds like google's practically copied it wholesale, tbh) so they're not cluttering up your app list. It works really well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted May 12, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2013 See launching apps from an app isn't really done thing with android, so that aspect ain't gonna be copied. But no doubt, especially coming in late to the game, the Play Games Services is going to be yanking elements from all over the place. The trick is if devs will hop on board. It wouldn't surprise me if it's not in competition with other phones (certainly not Windows Phone), but with other Android devices. You can get apps from other stores fine, but if the apps come wrapped up with Play Games and Google+ intergration it'll be a bit harder for devs to slap on Kindle or Ouya without a fair bit of a retrofit, thus might be less likely to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 13, 2013 Report Share Posted May 13, 2013 On my Nexus 7 I can hold the home button and move it upward and it launches Google Now. I'm not sure if that's a system-wide thing or exclusive to the Nexus 7. The nexus devices are some of the few with virtual buttons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 13, 2013 Report Share Posted May 13, 2013 Hmmmm. Seems to me that after fiddling with Google Now, it looks like it requires a connection even for app commands [alarms, open apps, etc]. So I've been using a divide of Google Now for searches and inquiries, while the S-voice assistant for messages/app commands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted May 13, 2013 Report Share Posted May 13, 2013 Settings>Voice>Download offline speech recognition 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted May 13, 2013 Report Share Posted May 13, 2013 That'll do the trick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.