Windows Phones to be controlled by voice

6.5 handsets to get free "Tellme" button

30 April 2009 12:46 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Microsoft has announced that future Windows Phones will get speech control functionality, thanks to software from Microsoft-owned "Tellme".

Said to "simplify" phone control, Tellme is apparently the first such service that will let people press one button and "say what they want and get it".

Windows Phones with the Tellme functionality will get a side button for the service. Users will be able to send a text by pressing the button and saying "text", say "send" to send it, make a call by saying "call" and then the contact's name and search the web by voice too.

Tellme has designed a "unique version of this experience" for operators and manufacturers to use specifically for Windows Mobile 6.5 phones due out this autumn, as well as planning to distribute it through the Windows Marketplace for Mobile store.

Microsoft says their research shows that people prefer voice over touch, stating, as an example, "it requires four touches and more than 20 keystrokes to find a business with the Apple iPhone, while it only takes one button push and one verbal command to find the same business with Tellme".

Apple iPhone owners have had the option of downloading Google's voice search application since November 2008.