Voice Dialing
This lets you speak a name to dial a number instead of entering a number manually or choosing it from the phone book.
There are two types: speaker-dependent (recorded) and speaker-independent (recognition).
With speaker-independent voice recognition, no recording/training is required. The name can be spoken by anyone, and the phone will automatically understand the spoken name and match it with the closest name entered in the phone book. On smartphones, speaker-independent voice dialing is just one function of a comprehensive voice assistant feature that recognizes and "understands" a wide range of voice commands.
With speaker-dependent, voice dial entries (or "tags") must be explicitly created by speaking and recording the name 1-3 times. The phone will only respond to recorded names, and usually only when spoken by the same person who recorded them. This uses a very crude audio-matching technology instead of actual voice recognition. The maximum number of voice dial entries is usually limited to a fraction of the size of the whole phone book.
Speaker-independent is the most common type, available on all smartphones. If the type isn't specified, it is usually speaker-independent. Some very old phones (not smartphones) offered only speaker-dependent voice dialing.
Last updated Dec 14, 2020 by Rich Brome
Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
