Why can´t my phone talk? - September 22, 2009

By Chandra Challagonda
Back in the days when mobile phones were perceived as a replacement for landline phones the definition of "Hands Free" meant not using your hands when you are talking on the phone. But nowadays mobile phones are used more or less as computers & usage is increasingly cantered accessing e-mails, social networking & internet browsing. So there is a need to re-define, what exactly "Hands Free" means with the current mobile phone usage.

The other day I was taking a walk with my dogs and heard my phone alerting me at the arrival of a new e-mail. Both of my hands were holding leashes so I did not have chance to take the phone out from my pocket and start pressing keys. So I had to tie the dogs to nearby pole and then reply to the email. After I started walking again, I come to think that the phone I am using is supposed to have the Hands Free-feature, right?

As a mobile device user I would like to have more intelligent & advanced voice command based usability of my phone which would be totally hands free. That means when my hands are not free, I connect a Bluetooth headset and when I get a new mail, I just say "Read New Mail", then I would expect my phone to read the e-mail with the same voice & accent I have. (good, eehh?). Also for example if I give a voice command to my phone "Next Meeting Please", then my phone reads out the next meeting details and then I say "Take me there/Drive me there", then phone should be able to launch Navigation application and guides me to that location.

Another use case is that the user keeps dictating and mobile phone automatically keeps typing it. There could be many more use cases like this. And this all needs to be done without using hands and without pressing a key buttons on the phone.
In today's world staying connected is considered important and doing multiple things at the same time has become so common that it would be really good to have one more hand to operate mobile phones.

Well I am not mentioning that all mobile users have to undergo mutation. But rather a usability mutation is needed to provide a true Hands Free experience.