Vlingo is a voice-command system for mobile phones. What’s more, it will come as a pre-loaded app within the Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 Mini upcoming v20 firmware update. However, we’ve managed to get access to an advance copy of the software to test out. Find out how we got on with our Vlingo for Nokia N97 preview….

As mentioned, Vlingo is a voice-command system for mobile phones and it’s coming to the Symbian S60 5th Edition platform as part of the v20 firmware update. Using the phone’s mic you can issue commands to make calls, write messages and launch applications, among other things. It’s like the built-in voice dialling function on steroids, basically.

Commands are based around keywords like ‘Call..’ ‘New message..’ and ‘Note to self..’ (this last one creates a Note by default, although you can specify another app if you have a preference).

You will need an internet connection for the app to process your input – it passes some data to a central server for processing each time. Vlingo reckons it uses about one megabyte every 150 times you use the app. So, probably not much to worry about but good to know if you are on a miserly data tariff. The other obvious caveat here is that Vlingo will only work where you have a decent phone or wifi connection.

Assuming your connection is in order, though, Vlingo works pretty well. The first surprise we had was that app didn’t require any training. We had expected to have to recite a few paragraphs of sample text to help Vlingo adjust to our voice, but the app was able to respond from the get-go, which was quite impressive.

Vlingo wasn’t always able to make sense of our mumbling, but the app will adjust to your voice over time and incorporate any corrections you make. In practice we found it mostly reliable, with just the odd misspelling when we were unclear or said an unusual name. If Vlingo can’t detect a command keyword it will at least try to do a web search with whatever words it can make out, which is often useful.

Our only serious complaint is with the non-voice aspects of the user interface. To use Vlingo you need to hold down a ‘Speak now’ button while you speak. On the Nokia N95, for instance, this is assigned to a hardware key, but on touchscreen phones you need to press on an area of the screen.

The problem with this is that you can’t ‘feel’ the button like you can on a non-touch phone. Even on a phone with buttons you still need to tie up one hand until you are finished speaking, which makes it only a little more practical for use while driving than just dialling manually. The option to just tap a button once and then speak would have been handy.

Similarly, unless you speak very clearly or used Vlingo to the point where it has totally adjusted to your speech patterns you are bound to make some mistakes, which means you will have to use your fingers to make corrections. Dialling numbers and launching apps is one thing, but I wouldn’t want to send out a text unchecked unless I really didn’t mind it being filled with typos. This does rather limit the ‘hands free’ aspect of the app.

Vlingo works well and performs better than we expected in some areas. The user interface issues prevent it from being quite as useful as it perhaps could be, however.

You can download a trial version of Vlingo from the link below, or if you own an Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 Mini you could just hang on for the upcoming v20 firmware update – in the next few weeks Nokia will start bundling the app with all new Nokia N97 handsets, too.

Version: v1.2.32575
Price: Free (trial limited to 15 SMS/emails) £3.00 for 30-day license or £12.99 for full license
Download: Vlingo

Check out our Preview: Vlingo on Nokia N97 image gallery: