Android Core Labs
Android Core Labs is a weekly column dedicated to deep dives, experiments, and a focused look at the technology you use. Covers phones, tablets and everything else.
I’ve long had a love/hate relationship with using voice typing on my phone. The good thing is that I use Android and know from experience that Google voice typing is substantially better than Apple has historically had. But while I generally have no problem with my phone understanding my words, the way I speak to it is anything but natural or normal.
What if your phone was finally smart enough to understand that these parts of speech are just filler? Pauses are natural and our brain usually filters those things out when we talk to someone. Nothing’s new Essential Voice is the closest I’ve seen to truly understanding human speech, and it’s completely transforming the way I talk with my Nothing Phone 4a Pro.
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Return of the physical key
Last year saw the clear return of physical keys on the side of phones, and Nothing was a clear leader in this space. Essential Space and Essential Key were a glimpse into a smarter future where AI understands what you want, while still requiring you to physically press a key to invoke the action.
This type of physical interaction is most useful in situations where you can’t use both hands to do something. Voice typing is a great example of this, as people often use voice typing while physically multitasking. Whether it’s washing the dishes or driving a carHaving hands-free control of what’s happening on your phone can be very important.
Essential Voice can be invoked by lifting the keypad and then tapping the Essential Voice key at the bottom left or by pressing and holding the physical Essential key on the side of the phone. I prefer the latter, as voice transcription stops the moment you release the key, but it’s nice to have an alternative toggle for when you can’t spare a hand to hold down the physical button.
Instead of using the on-screen keyboard to type, Essential Voice used a combination of local and cloud AI to quickly understand what you’re saying, which then appears in text wherever you try to type on the screen. It’s no different than what Google Voice Typing does, but Nothing does the job better.
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few days using Essential Voice to dictate things I normally write. This article, for example, was written primarily in Essential Voice and then lightly edited to make some punctuation changes, mainly in places where I wanted the paragraphs to change differently. I even tested him by reading an article out loud and seeing if he can write things the same way I read them. In all cases, Essential Voice worked perfectly.
Now, as expected, Essential Voice has a downside. The biggest problem, by far, is that it requires network connectivity to work. There’s no offline support yet, but I hope Nothing can take it offline in the future, even if offline transcription takes a little longer.
Transcription time will also vary depending on how long you speak. Surprisingly, short messages take a little longer to transcribe into text than long ones, but that’s because the system works while you speak. This isn’t a deal breaker, but the fact that it requires a network connection could be a big problem if you find yourself offline.
Even with these caveats, I was so impressed with Essential Voice’s performance that I’m willing to ignore them for now, as Nothing improves the feature. It works very well and works. everywhereunlike some AI-powered transcription features on most phones that only work in certain apps. The freedom and quality you get with Essential Voice is unparalleled, and for that, Nothing deserves praise.
Whether you’re looking for a pink, silver, or black color, the metal unibody Nothing Phone 4a Pro stands out from the rest in the best way, with class-leading displays, battery life, unique software features, and more.
