Does the Google speech recognizer on Android need internet?

Question

I use the following code to invoke the voice recognizer by google:

// This is a demonstration of Android's built in speech recognizer

package com.example.voiceinputbuiltintest;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Locale;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.speech.RecognizerIntent;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    private static final int VOICE_RECOGNITION = 1;
    Button speakButton ;
    TextView spokenWords; 

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        speakButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button1);  
        spokenWords = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView1);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
        // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
        getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode,
            int resultCode,
            Intent data) {
        if (requestCode == VOICE_RECOGNITION && resultCode == RESULT_OK) {
            ArrayList<String> results;
            results = data.getStringArrayListExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_RESULTS);
            // TODO Do something with the recognized voice strings

            Toast.makeText(this, results.get(0), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            spokenWords.setText(results.get(0));
        }
        super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data);
    }

    public void btnSpeak(View view){
        Intent intent = new Intent(RecognizerIntent.ACTION_RECOGNIZE_SPEECH);
        // Specify free form input
        intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE_MODEL,
        RecognizerIntent.LANGUAGE_MODEL_FREE_FORM);
        intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_PROMPT,"Please start speaking");
        intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_MAX_RESULTS, 1);
        intent.putExtra(RecognizerIntent.EXTRA_LANGUAGE, Locale.ENGLISH);
        startActivityForResult(intent, VOICE_RECOGNITION);
    }


}  

This works without network connection in my test machine which is Nexus 7 with Android 4.3. I thought it would work the same on any android device. However, when I try it on Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android version gingerbread.el21, the voice recogniser activity shows up, but says it needs network connection and refuses to work. Why does it work in Nexus 7 and not in Galaxy S2? Does it work offline or does it need network connection? It works in the Nexus 7 even when I stop the wifi.

Solution

In jellybean the user needs to download the offline speech recognition package.

This article sais:

Previously, when you pressed the voice icon and spoke a command or query, Android had to digitize your voice, upload it to the cloud, process the waveform, turn it into text, and send the text back down to your phone. Now the phones are powerful enough that this can be built into the device, with no extra network I/O needed. As you can imagine this results in much faster voice recognition than previous versions.

The app user will have to do this:

1. Go to “Language and Input” in the Setting
2. Tap on "Download offline speech recognition" under the "Voice Search"
3. Choose the language pack you want your Android device to recognize
4. Download the pack and enjoy the offline voice typing

Another helper link:

Google have restricted certain Jelly Bean devices from using the offline recognition due to hardware constraints.

Comments

[user13267]

Thanks for the fast reply. So this feature does work offline, and it works in Nexus 7 because I have updated the Android version?

[user13267]

By the way, I never explicitly downloaded the offline speech recognition files, but I did update the OS to the latest version of Android. I think the offline speech recognition also gets downloaded automatically when this is done

[Dyna]

yes, the new versions work offline but I'm pretty sure your galaxy s2 only have jelly bean and doesn't allow you to do this offline.

[user13267]

the Galaxy S2 is Gingerbread, so I guess it does not have this feature

[user13267]

Incidentally, I found this: stackoverflow.com/questions/17616994/… This explains why I haven't been able to find much information on this feature. I guess I was lucky that the Nexus 7 happened have enough hardware specifications to be able to run this feature offline

[Dyna]

Great link, I'll add it to my answer so that we could help other developers.