Currently, it's possible to press the google now/voice button (microphone icon) and say "Play U2", if the phone hears correctly, it'll pop up a prompt on screen which currently lists the registered music applications on the phone. When you click the desired app, it automatically plays artist U2.
So I was thinking.. Is it possible to implement the google voice recognition tools into MMA? If this is possible (i'm going to do a bit of research on this) there could be a voice control button on screen in MMA. When you pressed it, the sound would mute (to allow you to speak) and you could say "play U2", then MMA would select the artist playlist and play automatically.
If this is possible as described above, it may also be possible to send chains of voice commands, for example, "PLAY ALBUM <NAME>". MMA could react accordingly, possibly recognising words such as ALBUM, PLAYLIST, GENRE etc.
I'm not sure it's possible to integrate the voice services in this way (inside and application), so i'm going to look into that and post back. If it is possible to do this though, then this would be a fantastic feature for MMA in "car mode"... does anyone think this is a good idea/know more about it?
Update 1: for MMA to react to voice actions (so you can use voice to say PLAY <ARTIST>" then you will need to implement the API to be actionable by Voice Actions. This would be a good idea anyway, so voice users have the option of controlling MMA via google voice. As far as I can tell, the voice actions already allow what i've defined above, MMA just needs to be connected to the voice API. here's a list of commands that you can use
Listen to" followed by words for music you want to search for, such as the name of a song, artist, or album YouTube opens with the results of your search for music. If you install another application that works with the "Listen to" Voice Action, you’re prompted to pick which application you want to open. "Listen to: smells like teen spirit"
I've also found an application on Google Play which extends voice to do exactly what i've described.
Listen to a song, a playlist, an album or all songs from an artist (supports local phone media, and listen to a playlist, an album and to all songs from an artist works and has been tested only with Google Music Player, PowerAMP, Music PlayerPro and Winamp)
So providing MMA was "voice aware" this app may take away the need for internal support? whatever, it proves that it can be done.
Currently I can't test it as MMA is not recognised as a voice aware app. Would it be possible to implement that as the first stage so I can test further? I have purchased the app and will test later with PlayerPro
