Ok so yesterday I did something that shocked my wife…I jumped ship from my iPhone to Android…
I am a big watch fan (have had a pebble for six months) and the opportunity to get an Android Wear watch for 50% off with a new phone (LG G3 and all the cool stuff I can do with it was too tempting!
So has anyone else here got the same or similar setup and done anything with ST to get the benefit of voice control?
I have seen videos of people running voice commands to turn on and off lights etc which I think is just being done with endpoints and Tasker with Google Now Integration but curious to see if anyone here has done anything as I am totally new to Android as an ecosystem! Oh and if @Ben_Edwards wants a Beta tester for any cool Android Wear integrations let me know!
Tasker has no Google Now/Voice Search integration; it has its own voice recognition (via a plugin), but it’s clumsy compared to Google Voice Search (especially on always listening devices like the Moto X). For this to work like we would all like it to, Google needs to provide APIs for another layer like Moto X is using with Touchless Control (some commands bypass voice search and hand events to things locally).
I have no doubt that this is coming… but when? I dunno.
If you root your phone and use Xposed framwork and the google search API you can get this done. I have it working right now. But it always leaves your phone mic on and can cause some battery drain.
I don’t really recomend it and i have turned it off. BUT… I have been using the IFTTT integration to be able to control my lights with a touch of a button. Its pretty slick!
Can’t wait for STs to come out with a Android Wear app!! That will be killer when it happens
Also willing to BETA any android wear stuff … jus sayin
So you can do some of this stuff without rooting. I cant root my device (work phone), so I had to come up with a work around.
So you’ll still need Tasker, and of course your Android Wear device (or phone with always listening enabled). I’ll do a rough overview, but I can provide more detail if needed. So that rough overview is…you’ll still use tasker and the httpget commands, and you’ll export out the task(s) as an app and install it on your phone. You can then use the “Ok Google, Launch NAME_THAT_APP” from your watch (or phone) and the task will execute just as it does in video. This works while your phone screen is off, and locked.
I will say that I’m not the best at getting device type to say, dim my lights, but for now I can at least turn off/on lights (individual or groups), and lock/unlock my door. If you’re good with device types and configuring them to call applications, then this should be super simple for you!
LOL, yeah that will work. I have a tasker app that sets up various settings for a “drive mode” that I occasionally launch by “ok google now, launch drive mode”, but building one for every HA command I would want to use is crazy. And as you mentioned, you have to be careful with their naming so that they are reliably recognized. For me, I am just gonna wait for something a little more main stream.
Yeah, it was tedious setting things up. Worth it though, totally! I have lights in groups that I call upon, and single lights. Without having another way to pass voice commands to HA, this is as good as it gets for now, I think. It’s not terrible, not ideal since it relies on a lot of manual building.
So there’s a few other options I looked at and used, a dev on the Play Store ‘RSEN’ had OpenMic that would let you specify the voice call (so, ok jarvis or go go gadget – bad examples), and it worked similarly. Wake up Command > Tasker. It sat on top of google now… He/She’s release Commandr: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.RSen.Commandr I tried it a few days ago, but I didnt want to give up the “note to self” command… it was really weird saying “ok google note to self note”. Looks like some of the functions of Commandr have changed…
I’d love an easier way to do this, less manual (maybe), but I feel like when Google pushes this out, its going to be locked down to the devices they support, and I’ll be back here doing the same stuff :\ Guess we’ll see!
(I know this will bump this topic, but I think Automagic was worth a mention)
As a big Tasker fan, I would just like to point out a VERY GOOD alternative called Automagic. They both support the same extensions and 3rd-party plugins, but I found the Automagic app to have a way better UX.
