Google announces Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone for Android

Google announced the new Voice Actions service for the Android smartphones today. Along with that the Google dev team released the Chrome to Phone extension, which is quite similar to the iPhone-compatible Firefox Home.

The Firefox Home, to refresh your memory, is an app that, once installed on an iPhone, lets you sync your desktop web browser (history, bookmarks and currently open tabs) with the one on your mobile phone.

Once you download and install the Chrome to Phone extension, you'll notice a new button (see image above) appearing on your Chrome web browser.

Then, you need to pay the Android Market a visit and get the dedicated Chrome to Phone app. Now, to send links, maps even currently selected text or phone numbers to your smartphone, just push the button on the desktop browser. Voila!

The problem is that the app in question only works on phones running Android v2.2 or higher and is currently available in the USA, the UK and a few more countries? Anyway, to find out more about the Chrome to Phone, take a look at the video below:

The Voice Actions, are a number of commands you can use to control your Android device with nothing else but your voice. Again, a Froyo-running device is required.

To give the Voice Actions a try, just get the latest version of the Voice Search app (you'll also need the latest releases of the Google Search widget and of some music apps such as Pandora, Last.fm, etc.). The Voice Actions feature comes along with those updates.

Thanks to Voice Actions you can make your Droid send a text message or an email, navigate you home (or wherever you're headed for), show you some unknown place on a map, play a song, search for something in the Internet, etc. Impressive indeed!

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