Google just created another way to use an iPhone to transcribe words into text.
The search giant said Thursday that it upgraded its Gboard app for iPhones so that it now recognizes people’s voices. People who install the app can now talk to their device to send messages instead of clunking away on digital keyboards.
Android users could already use Google’s voice-recognition technology to send text messages and the like.
Of course, iPhone owners can already use Apple’s Siri digital assistant to dictate messages. Still, the new Google app gives people yet another option.
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A type of artificial intelligence known as natural language processing powers both the Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) voice-recognition services. For a comparison of how they perform, see the following tweet:
Here is a comparison of Google dictation on the top and Siri on the bottom. Results are very typical for me. Yellow dot = bad pic.twitter.com/b97AXLbXWy
— Aaron Pressman (@ampressman) February 23, 2017
Besides the voice-recognition feature, Google said that the improved Gboard app can now translate 15 more languages than previously, including Russian, Greek, Hungarian, and Turkish.
For more about Google, watch:
Additionally, people who love sending those silly little cartoon icons known as emoji will now have more of them to choose from. Users of the Gboard app can “search and send all of the latest emoji from iOS 10,” Alan Ni, a Google associate product manager, said in a blog post.
