Vlingo: Actions Speak Louder With Words

OviPublisherSuccesses | 25 June, 2011 23:38

 

Vlingo is a virtual assistant app that allows Nokia users to turn their words into actions to send an email, text, search the web and more. With the powerful combination of speech recognition, natural language processing and Vlingo's Intent Engine, the app can understand the user's words and take the appropriate action. Available in six different languages, the award-winning app has received more than 1.2 million downloads in Ovi Store from more than 190 markets.

Based in the United States, Vlingo was established in 2006 by John Nguyen, Co-Founder and VP of Engineering, and Mike Phillips, Co-Founder and CTO - two individuals with extensive experience in the speech technology world. Nguyen and Phillips founded Vlingo to create a revolutionary speech-based user interface for mobile phones to provide a faster, more convenient way for users to access business, people and information on the go.

 


In the beginning, Vlingo faced much resistance to the idea that this type of "unconstrained speech recognition" was impossible for mobile apps to handle. However, through the innovative idea of using the power of the web and cloud computing to move the speech recognition off of the phone and into the cloud, it didn't take long for Vlingo to become the leading voice command app for Nokia phones, used by consumers to turn their words into actions. Vlingo's lead with Nokia phones was evident in 2009 when the company was named the "Must-have App of the Year" award winner in the utilities category by Nokia's own Ovi Daily App blog in 2009.


Vlingo is a powerful and accurate utility app for users that are on-the-go and need to access their phone data, update information or send a message quickly - no typing is necessary. For example, after downloading Vlingo, the app walks users through a three-step process on how to begin using it properly.

First, users can sync the Contacts on their mobile phone with the app, enabling them to send voice-activated e-mails, text messages and make calls simply by saying a contact's name. Once the Contacts have been synced, the next step is for users to link their email account to the app so that they can listen to their e-mail messages. Lastly, users can set up a local access number that they can dial and access their messages.

 


To use Vlingo, users simply tap the app once to activate and can then use their voice to initiate commands. For instance, users that want to find a business will call them out by name, using intuitive commands such as "call plumber" or "movie times in San Francisco" which Vlingo will then recognize the voice commands and locate the nearest plumber or find movie times via the internet. For users who want to utilize the app in their daily life, they can use commands like "open alarm clock" or queries such as "who won the World Cup in 2010?" and Vlingo will either open the alarm clock native application or search for results online.

The Vlingo app also serves as a safer alternative compared to texting while driving. To support the company's efforts to combat distracted driving, Vlingo puts out a yearly comprehensive report that aims to uncover consumer's activities and attitudes surrounding the use of mobile messaging while driving. By simply speaking a voice command into the phone, the app offers advanced and convenient features that include:

  • The ability to send and reply to emails and text messages
  • Search the Web
  • Open native applications
  • Get directions
  • Look up contacts
  • Dial the phone to call someone
  • Send a "note to self"
  • Send voice updates to Facebook and Twitter
  • Read-back the full text or email message that was spoken
 


"With the rise of the mobile internet, people are interacting with their mobile phones more and more each day, impacting the way people access information. Consumers are looking for the fastest and easiest way to get things done," said Ashley Griffiths, Managing Director, EMEA at Vlingo. "The Nokia Developer team understands what developers need and has validated this by pre-loading Vlingo on Nokia phones.  Working with Nokia has helped us ready our technology and make it available in various markets around the world."

For more information on how to use the app, Vlingo has compiled a short video:



The company has been a hit with Nokia users the world over. One Vlingo user comments: "I love that Vlingo shows you what you can say and explains how the process works. There's definitely the cool factor when showing it off to your friends and it's also very useful if you prefer to not type a message."

To further increase its awareness and the apps availability on new Nokia Symbian phones, Vlingo participated with nokiAAddict in a N97 phone giveaway contest in 2009, asking users to submit a video showing their favorite uses of the app in video form. View the winning entry "The Magic of Vlingo" below.

 

 


To create Vlingo on Nokia's Symbian platform, the developers have combined two technologies with a Hybrid Solution for Embedded Speech Recognition, as well as a server connection for remote Speech Recognition. In order to achieve high accuracy, Vlingo makes use of significant amounts of automatic and continual adaptation. Unlike other speech recognition technologies that require intensive manual labor to tune recognition inputs, Vlingo's adaptation is automated, leading to continual improvements for users.

"The Nokia Developer team has formed a strong partnership with third party developers and has provided consistent support of our efforts," said Mike Phillips, Co-Founder and CTO of Vlingo. "On the technical side, we are excited that Vlingo is pre-loaded on many of Nokia's phones worldwide, giving users an additional way to interact with services on their device."

Currently the app is offered in the following six languages:

  • Simplified and Traditional Chinese
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish


Moving forward, Vlingo has plans to add other features and additional languages to support and reach a broader, global audience.

Vlingo has invested in huge efforts to increase in-market visibility and help drive users to the Ovi Store via Vlingo's company website and blog. In addition, Vlingo has participated in Ovi Store promotions, such as the "Back to School Promotion" which occurred during a 30-day period from August through - September, 2010. To coincide with their Back to School Promotion to gain further exposure and participation, Vlingo collaborated with Nokia to host a contest on Facebook for all their fans to have a chance to win a Nokia X6 with Vlingo Plus preloaded on the phone. In addition, Vlingo offered five second prizes of Nokia 5233 smartphones equipped with Vlingo Plus. During this timeframe, Vlingo offered the app at a discounted price of more than 50 percent. As a result, Vlingo received a considerable 7x increase in downloads.

Vlingo comes preloaded on the Nokia N97, Nokia E72 and Nokia N97 mini phones. In addition, the app is also available for free download on New Symbian phones and other Nokia phones such as N95, E51, E71, E75, 5530 XpressMusic and 5800 XpressMusic. The developer plans to release the app for all Symbian 3.x phones in the near future.

With the free version of Vlingo available in Ovi Store, users receive all the features listed above, but are limited to sending five text or e-mail messages. With Vlingo's Plus edition, users receive unlimited text and e-mail via voice along with all the other functionality of the free version of the app. The Plus edition costs $4.99/month or a one-time fee of $19.99.

For a complete overview of all Vlingo apps, visit Ovi Store.

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