Conversational Commerce: Top 10 Speech/Text Recognition Tools
We’re now in 2020, which means that the predictions for speech and text recognition tools are about to come to fruition. Five years ago, chatbots and speech recognition tools were seen as a luxury addition to a website. Now, they’re almost a necessity. As with most technology that goes mainstream, we start to question how we ever functioned before these tools.
When it comes to marketing, the speech recognition and text recognition fields are only growing. As one of the biggest examples, many companies are adjusting their marketing budgets to account for the Amazon Echo and other voice-assistant devices. With more and more people asking Siri, Alexa, and others for help, the commerce world has needed to update with long-tail keywords and conversational language on their website.
Elsewhere, the Facebook Messenger app allows users to order products and make purchasing decisions using text and chat alone. Nowadays, even small businesses with tiny budgets can enlist this help and compete with the largest names in the country.
Even for content creation, speech recognition platforms mean that if we wanted to, we’d never have to type another word again. Apart from the marketing world, these tools also have an audience in bloggers, writers, and others who find themselves with aching hands after a long day of typing.
With all of this in mind, we want to look at ten of the best speech and text recognition tools today. What exists in the market? How do they compare? We’ll see it all today as conversational commerce continues to take over!
1. Dragon by Nuance
Dragon Naturally Speaking and Dragon Anywhere really do allow you to leave the mouse and keyboard alone. With several fantastic features, Dragon is widely considered one of the best services in the niche. With all speech recognition tools, success generally comes down to accuracy, which is something Dragon has a knack for. What’s more, it works with all sorts of apps, whether you use G Suite, Notes, Word, or another tool altogether.
Available for macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS, we think the $14.99 price tag is affordable. Especially for writers and those who will use it on a daily basis, the platform should soon pay for itself in the extra work you’re able to complete in an average day. We should also note that Dragon by Nuance is available in English, French, Italian, Dutch, German, and Spanish.
2. Braina
We’ve spoken about transforming speech to text with speech recognition tools, but wouldn’t it be great to do more than that with voice? Braina’s clever artificial intelligence allows for other voice-activated tasks. Will you search for files on your computer? Search the internet? Set an alarm? Make a note? You might compare this to something like Siri, but Braina does even more.
The speech-to-text feature works on many websites and tools, including Notepad and Word. It manages several languages and is successful with most accents. Even if you need scientific or medical terms, Braina should be equipped to deal with your commands.
3. Dictation.io
If you only need a speech-to-text tool once, rather than continual use, we highly recommend Dictation.io. You don’t need to spend any money and there are no downloads. You simply start talking. Although the finished content will require some cleaning up, especially with punctuation, it allows users to copy and paste, email, print, and use the text in other ways. If you’re planning to use a tool everyday, we recommend one of the others in this list.
4. Microsoft Cortana
We know not everybody is an Apple fan, which is why we want to talk about Cortana. As a personal digital assistant, Cortana is similar to Siri in that you can complete tasks, set reminders, search the web, and look for files with it. Cortana will work alongside Spotify, Netflix, Just Eat, and other apps. Suddenly, everything is controlled with your voice on all devices with Microsoft.
5. Facebook Messenger
We spoke about Facebook Messenger briefly in the introduction because it has quickly become one of the most effective features for businesses of all shapes and sizes. As a text recognition tool, it has allowed brands to have a presence online even when there are no employees actively manning these channels.
Some businesses will set up a chatbot so that customers can converse with the brand at all times. If customers are shopping online in bed at 2am when they can’t sleep, they can pose a query to your chatbot and get an answer immediately (rather than sending a message and waiting until the next day for a reply). Getting quicker answers might just push them over the edge to choose your products over others. If they have doubts about a product, it’s better to provide them with the tools they need to ease their concerns rather than allowing them to go elsewhere.
Depending on your business, you can even allow customers to place orders via Facebook Messenger. For example, there has been a surge in the number of flower businesses allowing their customers to order deliveries through this text-based system.
6. Amazon Echo
If you want a home assistant device, you have a big decision to make. Will you go for the Amazon Echo, or perhaps the HomePod, or Now? As a Bluetooth speaker, Echo uses an Alexa to respond to requests. Understanding several languages and accents, you can ask her to play music, add an item to your Amazon shopping list, or even check the weather or tell a joke.
7. Apple (Siri, HomePod, Dictation)
With our next two suggestions, we have two of the biggest names in technology, and they both have a handful of text and speech recognition tools. For us, one of the best is dictation because it works across all Apple devices and doesn’t cost a dime. As long as you have internet connection, you can get started.
There are a few features we like, but perhaps the best is the ability to edit using commands. Once you get to know ‘select previous word’ and other commands, you can ditch the keyboard for good. In a recent test, only two words were inaccurate out of 250 while using Enhanced Dictation.
Following the dictation tool, Siri is a voice recognition tool that will complete any commands sent her way. HomePod. like Alexa, is another home assistant technology that has quickly worked its way into many homes around the globe.
8. Google (Now, Cloud Speech API, Home, Gboard, Docs Voice Typing)
Google has always been one to spot a trend, and they have certainly done that with speech and text recognition. If we use Docs Voice Typing as an example, users on Google Docs can convert their speech to text on the page. Given the other uses of Google Docs, like real-time collaboration, this is a brilliant feature. With no extra software required, simply log into your Google Docs account, go into the ‘Tools’ menu, and you’ll find ‘Voice Typing’ in there. Of course, Google and its many tools are mostly free too.
Elsewhere, you can take advantage of Cloud Speech API, Now, Gboard, and Home. While Home is Google’s version of Amazon’s Alexa as a home assistant, Gboard is a clever keyboard for mobile devices. As well as glide typing and other features, you will have voice typing. While attending a business meeting or coming up with ideas while commuting, just open the keyboard and you’re ready.
9. Express Dictate
Express Dictate is seen by many as one of the easiest of these types of platforms to use. Created by NCH, it has an interface that welcomes novices and savants alike.
On the surface, this is a dictaphone with voice recording software. However, it goes further than most. As an example, many users like the voice-activated recording feature. Rather than recording everything and having to sit through long periods of silence while listening back, it will only record when a voice is detected.
Once recorded, share files with others and save in whatever format you need (mp3, wav, or dct). As time has gone on, the developers have opened up the software to more operating systems. This means that Express Dictate is now available on Windows, macOS, and iOS.
10. Duer (Baidu)
Finally, why buy a smart device when you can turn existing technology into smart devices? That’s the premise of DuerOS, which uses the speaker and microphone on a device to create a smart device. As long as it has these two features, you can get started. It helps businesses with AI solutions and has brilliant image and speech recognition technology. The popularity of the software has allowed the company to offer reasonable prices.
