Which Android Version Introduced SpeechRecognizer's Audible Cue onReadyForSpeech?

Question

Android 2.x does not automatically sound an audible cue when ready for speech input.

Android 4.1 does.

What happens in between these versions? i.e. When was this cool feature introduced?

• Android 3.0? (Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB_MR)
• Android 3.1? (Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB_MR1)
• Android 3.2? (Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB_MR2)
• Android 4.0? (Build.VERSION_CODES.ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH)

I need this in order to perform a check against Build.VERSION.SDK_INT at runtime.

Do you know of any source that documents this?

Answer 1

That "ready for speech" double-beep to which you are referring is not a feature of the Android OS but rather Google App.

This is very close to Kaarel's answer but the distinction between Voice Search and Google App could be confusing.

What's more confusing is the fact that Google App used to be named Google Search but make no mistake: The identical package name turns itself in... com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox.

I don't know exactly at what point the "no beep Google Search" turned into "cool double-beep Google App", but my limited observation shows that Google Search version 1.3.3 (Android 2.2.1) had no beeps, while Google App version 4.1.24 (Android 4.1.2) has those beeps.

As of today (2015-01-22), Version 1.3.3.247963 of Google Search is latest version available on Google Play for Android 2.2.1 devices.

An Android 4.1.2 device, however, can see a higher version in Google Play and download & install it: 4.1.24.1672412.arm.

Thus, it seems that those beeps are tied to the Android version.

BTW, Google App features what's known as "OK Google". Perhaps that was the reason for introducing those (now famous) beeps.

"OK Google" was first introduced in the Google I/O conference in May 2013, but since it is available for download from Google Play to Android 4.1 devices (which was introduced in July 2012), one cannot assume direct link to the latest release version at that time. There are, in fact, instructions on how to install Google App on Android 4.0 but I doubt that is supported by Google. Thus, to be safe, I would say that if you enabled automatic updates on your smartphone, then the Android version that first introduced "the recognizer beeps" is 4.1.

Answer 2

This might be a feature of Google Voice Search, but Google Voice Search is a regular app and thus external to Android.

onReadyForSpeech is a callback via which an end-user app (e.g. a keyboard app) can have some code executed by the speech recognizer app (e.g. Google Voice Search). Both of these apps can sound the audible cue but neither is part of the core Android.

Maybe relevant: void startRecording (MediaSyncEvent syncEvent) was added in API level 16.