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The ability to say “OK, Google Now” and then have your phone perform any task you ask of it is cool, and it’s likely going to come baked in on devices that use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800, but for now it’s a feature exclusive to the Moto X and the new Droids on Verizon. With that in mind, the news of Motorola’s Touchless Control app being available to download from the Play Store becomes far less exciting, but it does semi-confirm updates with potential new features might be coming.
According to Droid-Life, who had a bit of fun tearing apart the APK file, it looks like one of those new features might be the ability to turn on the speakerphone. You can see how that might be useful. A call comes in, your phone tells you who it is, and you say “answer with speakerphone” and you’re then placed on the call. The Moto X could also potentially listen to your conversation, and whenever you say “OK speakerphone”, it’ll go on speakerphone. That’s pure speculation on my part.
Will voice activated interfaces take off? It’s early days. When touch screen phones first came out, there was a huge debate, with people saying keyboards allowed faster input. As with all new technologies, there are pros and cons. Voice will let you do some things faster, but at the cost of annoying those around you in a public forum.
