Voice Commands

What is it?

Soundscape is ready for Gemini, but Gemini cannot use it yet: that depends on Google releasing support for Android app functions in Gemini. Once it does, you will be able to ask Gemini to do things in Soundscape without touching your phone: hear a callout, start one of your routes, or set an audio beacon on one of your markers. Any other assistant that supports Android app functions will be able to do the same.

Soundscape will answer in its own voice, with the callouts and beacon sounds you already know, rather than the assistant reading out a summary. That way what you hear will still come from the direction it is describing.

When would I use it?

Voice commands are useful when your phone is in your pocket, your hands are full, or you would rather not stop walking to press a button. They work while Soundscape is in the background and while your phone is locked, and asking for a callout does not open the app.

Your assistant does the listening, not Soundscape, so the app never takes over your microphone and your Bluetooth headphones stay in their high quality audio mode instead of switching to the lower quality mode used for phone calls.

How does it work?

There are no exact phrases to memorise. Ask for what you want in your own words and the assistant matches it to one of the actions below. Route and marker names are matched loosely, so part of a name is usually enough.

You can ask Soundscape to:

Describe My Location, what is Around Me, or what is Ahead of Me.

Call out the saved markers near you.

Start one of your saved routes by name, move on to the next waypoint, go back to the previous one, mute the beacon, or stop the route.

Set an audio beacon on one of your saved markers by name, or switch the beacon off.

Set the callout detail to Silent, Essential, Simplified or Detailed, to change how much Soundscape says as you walk. Silent turns automatic callouts off.

Read back the names of your saved routes or your saved markers.

Everything except the two lists needs Soundscape to be running. If it is not, the assistant will tell you to open Soundscape first. Listing your routes and your markers works either way, because it only reads what you have already saved.

Voice commands will need a phone running Android 16 or later, with an assistant that supports app functions. Until Google releases that support in Gemini, they will not work.