Chrome Assistant Converts Speech To Executable Browsing Commands
Chrome recently integrated speech commands, and many apps and services are now being developed to either make use of the feature or to improve it. Chrome Assistant is a web service that converts speech to executable commands; it allows you to open different sites based on the pre-loaded commands, look up your current location or find the local weather. It simplifies sending complex commands via speech by integrating them in to a single command. If you wanted to visit Facebook, all you’d have to do is to say ’Facebook’ in your microphone to see what your friends are up to. The service also deciphers voice commands other than the ones pre-loaded to it, though with somewhat less accuracy. The service does not yet have a URL that you can remember easily, which is why the best way of getting to it would be to download the Chrome Assistant app from the Chrome web store.
The launch page of Chrome Assistant app redirects you to the site, and gives a detailed overview about the features and user instructions. Once you click the launch button, you would come across a small microphone icon on the screen which would have a caption requesting you to speak whatever website you feel like browsing.
Once you click on the icon, it would turn blue and you would be prompted to speak by a small active window with a ‘Speak Now’ caption. Speak your desired website’s name loudly and clearly once, and Chrome Assistant would decipher your command to open the respective website.
In case your command is not clear, or has not been registered by the Chrome Assistant properly, you would come across an invalid command message. If this happens, it’s not a big deal; just click the microphone icon again to start searching your desired website afresh.
Chrome assistant has a detailed set of commands that you can access if you speak help in the microphone. The help page lists all commands that are hard-wired into the site, including a list of unique commands that you can give.
If you say show me on map, Chrome Assistant would locate your physical location and show it to you. You can also check the weather of a particular place by speaking weather, temperature or forecast with city name in your microphone.
Chrome Assistant has generally been applauded by majority of its users, but the lack of custom commands in this extension limits its use somewhat. Once custom commands are incorporated, there would be no match to this speech to commands app for web browsing.
