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Nuance’s Dragon Mobile Assistant adds voice-enabled email, intelligent Driver Mode

Published Jun 18th, 2013 12:30AM EDT
Nuance Dragon Mobile Assistant 4.0 Launch

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Nuance has been steadily adding new capabilities to its Dragon Mobile Assistant application to help it compete with services such as Siri and Google Now, and its latest release of the software looks to be its most extensive update yet. Nuance on Tuesday launched Dragon Mobile Assistant 4.0, which features voice-enabled email composition, voice notifications that read you incoming text messages, emails, phone calls and Facebook status updates, and an intelligent Driver Mode that automatically turns on your device’s hands-free features when you enter a car. The new version of Dragon Mobile Assistant is available now on Google Play for Android devices that have Android 2.3 Gingerbread or higher. Nuance’s full press release is posted below.

Dragon Mobile Assistant Expands with Intelligent Driver Mode

 Automatically Switches to Driver Mode in a Moving Car; Adds Customizable Wake-Up Word and Voice Notifications for Facebook, Texts, Calls and Appointments

Burlington, Mass. – June 18, 2013 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its Dragon Mobile Assistant app for Android is updated with new proactive assistant features, including an intelligent hands-free Driver Mode, voice notifications and the ability to customize Dragon’s wake-up word.

Dragon already keeps people organized, productive and connected with some of the most unique personal assistant capabilities available, including Friend Finder location sharing, proactive conference call dialing and more.  And now, Dragon knows when users are in a moving vehicle and can automatically switch over to hands-free, eyes-free Driver Mode, keeping people connected in a safer, smarter way.  Driver Mode leverages Dragon’s powerful voice recognition and expressive text to speech to give people full command and control over Dragon without having to take their hands off the wheel to touch the device or take their eyes off the road to look at the screen.

Dragon has new features that also make it an even more personal experience, including Voice Notifications that can read aloud Facebook status updates, messages, incoming calls, and upcoming appointments.   And now you can choose how you wake up your Dragon with a customizable wake-up word.  So whether it’s “Hi Dragon”, “Hey Dude,” or “Hello Dolly,” Dragon is ready to respond and deliver.  And last but certainly not least, Dragon now also supports voice-enabled email.

“Dragon aspires to be an incredibly reliable and intuitive mobile personal assistant, not only responding to commands and providing relevant content, but also anticipating people’s needs in the moment—just like a true personal assistant,” said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile.  “Dragon’s truly conversational nature and expansive directed search capabilities give people an assistant with purpose, content and information from the content providers they trust the most—leveraging a broad ecosystem without boundaries.”

Availability

Dragon leverages Nuance’s renowned voice, language understanding, ambient intelligence and expressive text-to-speech to deliver a smarter personal assistant that listens, interprets and delivers a more intuitive and connected experience.  Dragon is available for free in English on Google Play in the US, supporting Android 2.3 and above.

To download Dragon, visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nuance.balerion.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.