SoundHound introduced Hound voice search app in invitation-only private beta last June for Android and also showcased how fast it is, in a demo video. Eight months after the beta, it has finally launched the app to the public on Android and iPhone in the U.S. The app has been improved for the 8 months with the help of about 150,000 testers.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2lLo2-gykg
“Hound is constantly improving upon its voice recognition technology for greater accuracy with new data, so the app can consistently provide more answers on a wider variety of search queries or commands. To further enhance the experience for users, new partnerships with Yelp and Uber enable users to access Yelp’s business listings or request an Uber by speaking to the Hound app naturally, as if they’re speaking to another person,” said the company.
Download HOUND Voice Search & Assistant (Free) – Android | iPhone
Highlights of HOUND Voice Search & Assistant
- Natural language – Unlike other voice services that require the user to learn and use particular words or phrases, Hound takes the opposite approach and works with how a user speaks normally. Hound’s ease-of-use is a major step towards empowering users to speak naturally, rather than conforming to a robotic, keyword-based way of speaking.
- Speed and accuracy – Hound is the first voice search service to use Speech-to-Meaning technology, which simultaneously combines voice recognition and natural language understanding, resulting in extremely fast and accurate voice interaction experiences.
- Specificity and understanding of follow-up queries – Hound can understand multiple variables, which allows users to be specific and detailed with requests. Moreover, Hound retains awareness of the context of what the user is asking, enabling an experience of continuity with follow-up questions. Hound will also prompt the user for more information if some of the necessary variables for the query are not initially provided.
- Hands-free – Hound can be used completely hands-free by saying “OK, Hound…” which enables use cases when users cannot touch their phones.
- Constantly expanding deep and joyful experiences – Hound is constantly getting smarter by learning from its usage data, and by expanding the domains that provide relevant information or actions related to queries.