Choice Dialer

Fast, hands-free voice control for Android.


Frequently Asked Questions

  • Should I use the Free version or the Paid app?
    Start with the Free version. It offers a limited trial of all the features.

  • What does the free version have?
    Choice Dialer Free is like Android's Voice Dialer, but it
    • is faster to start up
    • has voice confirmations (even on Android 1.5)
    • can handle more contacts
    • can launch by camera button
    • can launch by shaking the phone
    • can launch by wired headset button
    • allows strong recognition results to proceed without confirmation
    • lets you find contacts by voice
    • lets you start composing a text message to a contact
    • lets you start composing an email to a contact
    • lets you dictate your Facebook(tm) status
    • can tell you the time
    • can tell you what a cow says (spoiler: "moo")
    • has basic music playing commands
    • fixes contact names stored as "Smith, Paul"
    • allows you to dial 7 digit phone numbers
    • has a responsive developer
    • auto-resumes music after use
    • has a free trial of the Paid version's functionality
    For free, it should be full of win.

  • What does the paid version add?
    The paid version adds
    • commands to play music by artist, album and playlist name
    • calendar event scheduling
    • call reminders where you just touch the number to dial
    • send texts via Google Voice
    • the ability to actually dictate texts and emails
    • enable/disable Bluetooth, wi-fi, ringer, airplane mode, shuffle mode, repeat mode, etc.
    It costs about as much as a cup of coffee and a sticky bun.

  • My Market download is stuck at 100%
    This is a Google bug. Open the Market app and cancel the download, and then re-initiate it. If problems persist, visit Google's support forum.

  • I am otherwise unable to download it from Android Market.
    If you cannot find, download or purchase from Android Market, you might want to visit their support forum. If you are willing for the short term to just use the free version, here are the latest ones for Android 1.x and Android 2.x.

  • How does the Bluetooth hands-free dialing work?
    If your phone is not running Android 2.2 or later, give up the search for an app that permits this to occur, as it cannot be done. It you DO have Android 2.2 or later, Choice Dialer Plus (or Choice Dialer Plus Free) will use your paired Bluetooth headset, and should launch when you press (or long-press, on some headsets) the headset button.

  • My phone is Android 2.2 (or later), but Bluetooth Voice Dialing isn't working.
    SOME phones don't work initially but start working if you do this: unplug the phone from its power adapter, turn it off, and remove the battery for five minutes. Put it back together and see if things improve.

  • I downloaded it. How do I get technical support?
    You can access the app's Feedback panel by pressing menu when it is listening to you. This is the best initial contact, as the report it sends has a lot of handy diagnostic information that may greatly assist my understanding of your issue.

  • I bought the Android 1.x version and upgraded to 2.x. Do I have to pay again?
    I will refund your original purchase when you buy the Android 2.x version. I consider these the same product, but Android Market made that difficult to accomplish without buying the new one. Just buy the new one and send me your name and city for a prompt refund of the original purchase.

  • Is there an Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.x) version?
    Not yet. I may make one, but it will have to be a new product for technical reasons.

  • How many contacts can it handle?
    There is no set limit. If your contacts have no extraneous information in their name fields beyond first and last name, you should be able to store around 1.5 times as many as the stock Voice Dialer, but the recognition accuracy may drop off with so many names.

  • My recognition results are poor
    The most common cause of this is that users do not enter their contacts by first and last name. Reasonably long names give the recognizer more syllables by which to differentiate the names. Also, make sure that acronyms have periods in them (Y.M.C.A.) so the app can tell you will spell them out, and that abbreviations are also spelled out.

  • How do I adjust Choice Dialer, or learn the commands?
    Choice Dialer's Help and Settings panels are also found by pressing menu when it is listening to you. There are also spoken commands for these: "Help" and "Settings". A more thorough explanation is available here.

  • I have trouble getting my confirmations recognized.
    The default synthesized speech that poses the confirmation questions has the quirk that the question is followed by around 0.5 seconds of silence before my app starts listening again. Pause for a second before speaking and you will do much better. Also, rather than saying "Yes" to confirm a command, say "That's correct" -- it is supported and more easily differentiated from "No".

  • How do I start Choice Dialer?
    If your phone has a hardware 'Call button', Choice Dialer can be assigned to come up on a short or a long press. It can also come up from a long-press on a Search button.

    Users can also use a long-press on the camera button or the small button on an iPhone-style headset, but these must be enabled in Choice Dialer's Settings panel.

    I encourage you to assign a hardware button to Choice Dialer, as it can be configured to launch your second favorite dialer app by touching the screen after Choice Dialer launches. Choice Dialer's paid version also has a shake-and-talk launch trigger.

  • What about using the free Button Shortcut app?
    Version 1.4.10 has a built-in option to respond to a long-press of the Camera Button (see Settings panel). Choice Dialer is not compatible with Button Shortcut -- you may have to make sure Button Shortcut has no app assigned to the camera button if you wish Choice Dialer to claim this button.

  • RingGuard springs forward when I run your app
    Visit Choice Dialer's Settings panel and uncheck the "Fix notification volume" checkbox.

  • The paid version sometimes launches by itself
    This is likely the Shake-and-Talk feature being too sensitive. Go to Settings and disable the feature or slide its adjusting slider further to the right.

  • How many contacts can Choice Dialer recognize?
    Choice Dialer can recognize names of about 1000 contacts (more on Android 2.x phones), depending on the length of the contact names. If you have so many that Choice Dialer cannot load them all, a preference on the Setting panel allows you to only have it recognize the Starred (favorite) contacts.

  • How many songs/artists/albums can Choice Dialer recognize?
    About 3-500 of each (perhaps more after v1.6.12), depending on the length of the names. If your song titles contain track numbers, album names and artist names, edit them down or you will have a much lower capacity for "Play the song (title)". Hint: text coming after a :: mark will be ignored as part of the name.

  • Does Choice Dialer work with Bluetooth headsets?
    If you have Android 2.2 or later, and use Choice Dialer Plus, the app will. Otherwise, Choice Dialer speaks to you and listens to you through the handset's speakerphone and switches to your Bluetooth headset only after a call is dialed. This is due to a deficiency in Android prior to the release of Android 2.2 (visit here for more information).

  • The voice is annoying
    You might try Visual Confirmation mode from the Settings panel or by saying, "Enable visual confirmation" or adjust the volume of the voice in Settings. Alternatively, a $4 investment in SVox (on Android Market) will give you a much nicer sounding voice.

  • The hands-free voice is too slow/too fast
    In paid versions of Choice Dialer, the speed of the voice can be adjusted from the Settings panel.

  • I say one name, and Choice Dialer sometimes hears a different one.
    Most likely, the speech recognizer is hearing you poorly. Make sure your contacts are all entered with first and last names, that you have minimal background noise, and that you are speaking exactly in the form specified, e.g., "Call Robert Jones at work", and not "Call Robert Jones work". The Help panel specifies the permitted commands in a precise manner.

  • I say one name, and Choice Dialer always hears a different one.
    Choice Dialer may need you to press its Sync button so it will know to look for recent changes in your contact (and/or music) data. There is also a spoken command for this: "Synchronize". Alternatively, it might be that you have it set to recognize "My Contacts" and are speaking the name of a contact in the superset "All Contacts", or you have it set to only recognize the starred (favorite) contacts -- check the Settings panel.

  • It is not always confirming my commands.
    This is a feature, but a bug prior to v1.6.5 may have made it not confirm when it should have. You can set the threshold of confidence Choice Dialer must have in the speech recognizer below which it will ask you to confirm what you said versus just act on faith that it heard you correctly. Visit the Settings panel to see the two sliders that govern this logic.

  • Your app is assigned to my call/long-press-on-call/long-press-on-search or Bluetooth button and I want something else (or vice-versa).
    To find/change what app will respond to the call button, long-press-on-call, long-press-on-search or the Bluetooth button, visit your phone's Settings->Applications->Manage Applications->(app presently using that key) and press "Clear Defaults". The next time you hit the key in question, Android will ask which app you'd like to have handle it, and give you an option to make the choice sticky.

  • Your app is assigned to my wired headset button or long-press-on-camera button and I want something else.
    To prevent Choice Dialer from using either of these keys, you must visit its Settings menu and uncheck their boxes under "Misc Launch Options".

  • Does it support third-party music player apps?
    It supports "PowerAMP" and "Cubed". It supports some of Android's default players, though a disturbing trend has seen recent releases senselessly choose to close the interface for remote control. If your favorite player is not supported, you might suggest to its developer that they read this page and contact me so we can work on it.

  • My Captivate has Android 2.2. Why can't I voice dial?
    At least some Captivates (those running Android build "Froyo.UCKB1" distinguish themselves by not offering Bluetooth Voice Dialing. Your carrier will have to address this issue through a firmware update.

  • Why is Choice Dialer putting a notification icon up?
    A notification icon helps an app avoid being killed if the system is desperate for more memory. Visit Choice Dialer's Settings panel to see three choices for how assertive it should be in fending off the grim reaper by using this notification.

  • Does it support other text-to-speech engines than Pico?
    It supports Svox Classic and its language modules. If you have trouble getting Choice Dialer to use them, force-stop and restart Choice Dialer after setting the new engine as the default under the phone's Settings menu and specifically setting the language to English.

  • These are your FAQs? I have a much better question!
    Please feel free to contact me.



    • Choice Dialer is a trademark of Resounding, LLC.