MiniBrit

I have a droid phone and I could select 'British English' on the voice recog. It understands me most of the time

redarmy990

we have that option on i phone but

he wont recognise anything in the usa

and hes not as sexy as the us lady version

Bink

The funniest thing about this is how true it is! I too have issues with Siri. Especially with asking her to call (cool) someone! Yet she understands my horrible American accent impersonation (which I only did out of frustration the first time).

MiniBrit

It's not surprising we have issues, as phonetically a lot of the vowel sounds differ significantly between Brit and American English. And a lot of 't's they dont pronounce at all, but use something half way between a 't' and a 'd' (which is actually known as a flap). Then they have that rhotic 'r' at the end of words which we dont pronounce.

I too find myself putting on a revolting impression of a yank accent, when Im trying to negotiate a voice activated menu on the phone, in an attempt to get through to a real person. Makes me cringe every time but seems to do the trick.

redarmy990

thank god its not my yorkshire accent that confuses her
its a british thing

Bink

I normally resort to just saying "agent" repeatedly on automated phone services - most of them recognize it and put you through to a person even if it's not listed as an option! (some don't though!)

I have trouble at drive-thru's too. My wife is normally in fits of laughter when I try and order a Diet Coke... For whatever reason they frequently think I say Dr Pepper (Diet coke, dr pepper, nope don't get how they get that) or Sprite...?! I just let my wife order now. I don't even bother trying.

MiniBrit

I asked for a cappuccino in starbucks once and they actually thought I said 'cup of tea'...

penguinbar

Do you have a UK English setting? We have that on our tablet. My husband switched to that and it gets it most times!

Pulaski

My employer, a large US corporation with negligible overseas presence, has voice recognition for internal tech support. It has never had a problem with my muted Yorkshire accent and its flat vowels, but one of my department's American managers has problems all the time.

Bink

That's interesting. I guess it just depends on the software used and the specifics of each accent. I have trouble frequently and have a southern/West of London accent (Berkshire).

My car (as an exception to practically everything else) seems to understand me perfectly (and it's a GMC). I frequently use voice recognition to make calls on it and use it in preference to Siri.