Voice is quite underused on our smartphones. It's been getting way better at doing more stuff, recognizing different accents and doing everything a lot faster too.
Here's how you can do more with voice on your existing smartphones -- the only catch is that you need to know and memorize the correct voice commands.
So, here's over to things you didn't know you can do with Google Now, Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana (available on both iOS and Android devices).
Google Now: Smart calling
Using the voice assistant to call a contact is commonly known. However, if you have added a relationship status of that contact (mom, dad, sister, brother) you can just say "Call Dad" and the voice assistant will automatically find and call the relevant contact. The same trick also works for contacts with nicknames.
Google Now: Location-based reminders
Since 'Ok Google' works in conjunction with Google Now, you can use the service to quickly set location-based reminders. Just include the location or store name in your reminder. Like "Remind me to buy slippers when I get to Select Citywalk." When you visit the mall in question, your reminder will pop-up.
Apple Siri: Sort through photo mess
Siri has access to your iDevice's photo album, so you can ask it to search for specific photos with a condition of time, place or album. For instance, you can ask "Show me photos taken on November 10 this year" or "show me photos of my trip to Agra." If you're an OS X user with 'faces' set up in iPhoto (and a synced iOS device), you can also ask Siri to search for photos of a particular person.
Microsoft Cortana: Person recognition
Cortana comes with built-in voice recognition. This helps it create a personal voice recognition of your particular voice. This way only voice commands said by you are acted upon faster and other commands are ignored.
