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S Voice with Bluetooth Earpiece

Q

Quadlegend

Newbie
I use a Blueant bluetooth earpice with my Samsung Galaxy S4. Because of my disability, i can not use my hands so i rely heavily on voice control.

When i want to make a call, i press the main function button on my earpiece against my headrest and say 'phone commands'...this activates S Voice on my GS4.

First problem: By default, the 'talk back' feature is disabled. How do i have this ON all the time? I can't view my phone because it stays in my pocket!

Second problem: Say for example i say 'Call Dad'...S voice then prompts me by saying 'confirm call to Dad' - the problem is, it won't hear my voice until i press the little mic icon at the bottom of the screen...which i can't do. Is there a way to auto activate the mic without having to touch the screen?

BTW I really don't like s voice...if you can recommend something better i'm all ears!

Thanks.
 
Are you using the app Light Flow? If so, having it's accessibility service on will cause those problems.
 
Then I suggest going into settings/application management/all/S Voice and clear the cache and data. Then reboot your phone.
 
I'm sorry, but those are the only easy solutions I had to suggest. I think you already know what my last suggestion is...factory reset. If you choose to do that, I highly recommend App List Backup: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.punsoftware.backup
This will make restoring your apps easier and also allow you to load them one at a time so you can discover if an app did happen to be the true cause of your S Voice issues. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Oh, and I know this goes without saying, but make sure you back up anything you want to keep (photos, music, docs) to your SD card before resetting.
 
Quadlegend said:
I use a Blueant bluetooth earpice with my Samsung Galaxy S4. Because of my disability, i can not use my hands so i rely heavily on voice control.

When i want to make a call, i press the main function button on my earpiece against my headrest and say 'phone commands'...this activates S Voice on my GS4.

First problem: By default, the 'talk back' feature is disabled. How do i have this ON all the time? I can't view my phone because it stays in my pocket!

Second problem: Say for example i say 'Call Dad'...S voice then prompts me by saying 'confirm call to Dad' - the problem is, it won't hear my voice until i press the little mic icon at the bottom of the screen...which i can't do. Is there a way to auto activate the mic without having to touch the screen?

BTW I really don't like s voice...if you can recommend something better i'm all ears!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

It sounds like S Voice on your GS4 is different than the one on my Note 3 running Android 4.3. I use a Plantronics Voyager and a long press brings up S Voice with ding letting me know it's ready. I say "Call Dad", it says "Call Dad?", I say "yes" and it dials.

That said, I'm about to try Google Now again. For a long time it would randomly dial anyone but who I said to dial. I haven't seen any complaints about it lately so I'm hoping they finally got it fixed.
 
Jim, it's not different, it's just glitching. After it asks him for a response, it just stops, and that's the problem. It doesn't go to the next step where he can respond without him physically touching his phone, which he can't do. I had the same problem, but solved it by getting rid of an accessibility setting. He, however, doesn't have the same setting problem I had and yet is still having a problem with S Voice. If anyone else has some suggestions, please weigh in.
 
Thank you so much for all your help so far. I too have been hearing that Google Now is better and that i should give it a try instead of S Voice...but i wouldn't have a clue how to do it :) Do you know how i can 'disable' s voice and use google now? I went to download google now but i couldn't find it!

Mhynek, you're correct...resetting my phone is a daunting prospect, but if all else fails i suppose i won't have a choice:)
 
You're very welcome, wish I could help you more. Google Now is a good alternative to S Voice for some things, but cannot do everything S Voice can do. I am still trying them both out. Hope you find a solution to your problem. Good luck!
 
Thanks Mhynek.

Since i can't seem to fix this S Voice stuff, does anyone know how i can move over to Google Now? I.e. get rid of S voice?
 
Quadlegend said:
Thanks Mhynek.

Since i can't seem to fix this S Voice stuff, does anyone know how i can move over to Google Now? I.e. get rid of S voice?
Click to expand...

You can turn off S Voice in Manage Apps. I just did that to try Google Now and it still got every name I tried to dial wrong. S Voice almost always gets them right so I turned it back on.

Let me know if anyone has better luck with it.
 
It works pretty darn well. Only quirks I have is that in Drive Mode (comes on automatically when connected to BT) it sometimes mistakes things I say mixed with ambient sounds as the activating phrase and thinks I want to have it do something and beeps in my ear. It also won't read out texts from Chomp SMS, but that isn't a big loss to me as I don't do a lot of texting anyway. No matter what Dragon is far superior to that steaming pile named S-Voice.
 
Ok new problem...when i go to google play and search for it the app doesn't show up...when i search on google, go to the nuance website, click on the google play lnk from there...it says the app is incompatible with my device...what tha?
 
Never mind...just read on the website "Unfortunately, no. Dragon Mobile Assistant is currently only available in the US on Google Play"

Unless anyone knows a way around it:)
 
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