[br14nh]

I cannot for the life of me understand why the best feature of Voice Control was obliterated when replace with Voice Assistant.

Calling hands free via a car's bluetooth while driving used to be a simple, very achievable process that allowed me to minimise the time spent getting connected and minimised any distraction.

My Z30 had TRAINED ME - in a somewhat scolding manner - to ask directly for the number I wanted, the joy of which was, it would generally connect me straight up without much fuss...... (...Next time, just say "Fred Bloggs Mobile 1")

NOW........ I have to know to ask for JUST a name first, then I get the one I want plus three or four that are not a match (???!?!), then I have to ask for the particular one, THEN I have to specify which number I want - THEN it goes to a call icon, but it will first laboriously read out the person's job title along with the phone number, asking if I really want to call it... (what do you think you stupid phone, that's what I asked for that got us this far!!!!) Did Bill Gates have any input to this? It's like the pesky dialogue boxes in Windoze - ("are you REALLY sure you want to quit?")

This is now a significantly longer, more distracting and far less certain process than before - how did BB decide this was in any way better than the previous approach??? I've gone through the settings, modified search parameters and mucked around until I'm blue in the face (or the tooth) and cannot discover any way to get the results I want.

Voice Assistant may be fine for more complex searches but when it comes to straightforward hands free phone calling, when compared to the older app it is now severely crippled.

Please by all the deities of things technical and electronic, will someone save my sanity by telling me they know that BB are planning to re-introduce settings in Assistant that facilitate the old efficient way of calling hands free via bluetooth????

Failing that, has anyone with the resources discovered that the old Voice Control can be side-loaded and will run on 10.3.1?? (as is the case with loading slightly older calendars from 10.3.0 that allow bars in place of dots for those that wanted that)....

Regards,
Brian

[PHughes]

I cannot for the life of me understand why the best feature of Voice Control was obliterated when replace with Voice Assistant.

Calling hands free via a car's bluetooth while driving used to be a simple, very achievable process that allowed me to minimise the time spent getting connected and minimised any distraction.

My Z30 had TRAINED ME - in a somewhat scolding manner - to ask directly for the number I wanted, the joy of which was, it would generally connect me straight up without much fuss...... (...Next time, just say "Fred Bloggs Mobile 1")

NOW........ I have to know to ask for JUST a name first, then I get the one I want plus three or four that are not a match (???!?!), then I have to ask for the particular one, THEN I have to specify which number I want - THEN it goes to a call icon, but it will first laboriously read out the person's job title along with the phone number, asking if I really want to call it... (what do you think you stupid phone, that's what I asked for that got us this far!!!!) Did Bill Gates have any input to this? It's like the pesky dialogue boxes in Windoze - ("are you REALLY sure you want to quit?")

This is now a significantly longer, more distracting and far less certain process than before - how did BB decide this was in any way better than the previous approach??? I've gone through the settings, modified search parameters and mucked around until I'm blue in the face (or the tooth) and cannot discover any way to get the results I want.

Voice Assistant may be fine for more complex searches but when it comes to straightforward hands free phone calling, when compared to the older app it is now severely crippled.

Please by all the deities of things technical and electronic, will someone save my sanity by telling me they know that BB are planning to re-introduce settings in Assistant that facilitate the old efficient way of calling hands free via bluetooth????

Failing that, has anyone with the resources discovered that the old Voice Control can be side-loaded and will run on 10.3.1?? (as is the case with loading slightly older calendars from 10.3.0 that allow bars in place of dots for those that wanted that)....

Regards,
Brian

You can still say, "Call (NAME) Mobile." Mine simply changed from Mobile1 to Mobile. Check your contact.

[Joshu42]

You can deactivate the Full Assistance in the same panel...

[br14nh]

@PHughes,

Sorry, but that makes it even worse - it comes up with even more irrelevant matches that take longer to deal with, I've also been through all my contacts and made sure the numbers were what they should be.... I just don't see why they broke something that was working so well to begin with. I read a guide that instructed me that for the Assistant, you should ask contact first, then number as otherwise it just finds more results basically because there were more words in the request.

@Joshu42,

Yep, tried that, nope, didn't improve a thing..... it still takes so much more interaction to get the desired result, and while Assistant may be great for general searching, when it is related to driving it becomes about it being a safety feature - I'm bitterly disappointed with this aspect of Assistant...

One question I probably should ask - has ANYONE on 10.3.1 managed to get assistant working the same way as Voice Control on the older software??

I have two Z30's, both with full assistance deactivated, both set as per Joshu42's post, both reduced search just to contacts, set for phone calls only, and Assistant's behaving the same on both phones....... the same request finds more contacts than before (the filtering doesn't seem to be as accurate as before) and the extra steps involved in resolving down to a number and calling require way more interaction than necessary, especially irritating when driving

[1raygin]

I never had 10.3.1 because ATT skipped it. I do have 10.3.2 and I find it to be vastly improved to blue tooth voice activation calling on 10.2.1. That sucked to me. I find the Assistant to be very smooth and accurate for calling.

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[Richard Buckley]

Isn't your car smart enough to dial numbers on its own? I use the car Bluetooth system to dial. No muss, no fuss, it just works. It doesn't require any data and it leaves assistant available for more complex queries.

Z10STL100-3/10.3.2.2252 SR 10.3.2.2168

[br14nh]

....the car I drive most is a "tool of trade" government vehicle, they only spring for the "poverty pack" - bare bones bluetooth, no voice activation - I keep my phone in the cradle, all I used to need to do is tap the Voice Control icon and I was away, sadly, not any more.....

Perhaps 10.3.2 will give better results, but the experience on 10.2.1 was seamless for me, very fast & very accurate. I didn't change contact details between upgrades, so it's odd that Assistant is supposed to be better but gives me more trouble....

[br14nh]

Well, 10.3.2 is no better..... I tried just asking to call a name i frequently call, and it just comes back asking if I want to call a set of random numbers..... I'm so far over Assistant I'm seriously looking at rolling back to 10.2.1

It was one of the major features of the phone that I could hook up to any bluetooth and the voice commands would just work, without fiddling, changing settings or anything like that. (I'm also including headsets in this, as I sometimes needed my hands free while working on projects)

Serious, serious flaw for safe use of phone in vehicles and serious downgrade to general coolness of the phone.

[Joshu42]

Well, 10.3.2 is no better..... I tried just asking to call a name i frequently call, and it just comes back asking if I want to call a set of random numbers..... I'm so far over Assistant I'm seriously looking at rolling back to 10.2.1

It was one of the major features of the phone that I could hook up to any bluetooth and the voice commands would just work, without fiddling, changing settings or anything like that. (I'm also including headsets in this, as I sometimes needed my hands free while working on projects)

Q10SQN100-3/10.3.2.2639 here, no issue in French with a bluetooth headset. Either your mic has an issue, either you have a bad network... Remember that the voice recognition engine is done through the network with the full assistance enabled ; and by the leader on the market : Nuance.

[kgbbz10]

Well, 10.3.2 is no better..... I tried just asking to call a name i frequently call, and it just comes back asking if I want to call a set of random numbers..... I'm so far over Assistant I'm seriously looking at rolling back to 10.2.1

It was one of the major features of the phone that I could hook up to any bluetooth and the voice commands would just work, without fiddling, changing settings or anything like that. (I'm also including headsets in this, as I sometimes needed my hands free while working on projects)

Serious, serious flaw for safe use of phone in vehicles and serious downgrade to general coolness of the phone.

You can't roll back. Are you sure you're using it correctly? Seems to work fine for me. Have you tried a hard reboot?

BBClassic10.3.2.2639-799Radio

[PatrickMJS]

I'm sure your issue is frustrating for you.

I'm on 10.3.2.2639 on my Z30.

I've tried several times just now to see how it works on mine cuz I've not had the issues you described. I said "call Russell mobile" and it started to call him right away. I said "call Mike Smith mobile". My contact list has several Mikes, several Smiths and only one Michael Smith. But BA selected his number and called it right away with no delay. I tried other versions and never had any of the issues you described.

One contact I tried to call using BA just now had a duplicate entry and I had to choose which one. That actually reminded me to go in there a delete the extra one. She's one of those people who goes by her middle name and I had entered her once with just her middle name entered in the "first name" field and the second entry had a her full name properly entered. I figured that result from BA was understandable.

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[br14nh]

Thanks to all for your feedback....

I don't doubt that some (possibly even most?) are able to get effective use out of it.

I'm also using it correctly, I've gone to great pains to eliminate what isn't the problem... I suspect as can be the way with these things, that it has something to do with the location, carrier and other "unknown" factors. I've also compared usage to 3 other Z30s in this household, all on Telstra here in Sydney, working through variations of the settings to check that as well, hard reboots, etc - they all behave the same, i.e. poorly.

It would be interesting to hear whether any other Aussies have the same issues, or whether it works well for anyone else Down Under? That might give some further insight into the cause.....

[int19]

Thanks to all for your feedback....

I don't doubt that some (possibly even most?) are able to get effective use out of it.

It would be interesting to hear whether any other Aussies have the same issues, or whether it works well for anyone else Down Under? That might give some further insight into the cause.....

I have the exact same issue here: endless prompts confirming numbers to be dialled, reading them out along with job titles etc. It is essentially unusable in the car, to the point where it's quicker to find somewhere to pull over and dial manually.

I'm in Australia too, so wonder if it's some type of regional issue?

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