S Voice can't find some names in Contacts

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Like most people, I'm fairly underwhelmed with S Voice, though I gather it's an improvement over what was on the S3. I find that it has a terrifically hard time recognizing some names. Specifically, it can't find the first name of my wife or either of our daughters in Contacts! It gets most other names just fine (John, Nancy, Susan...). Just not the people I most want to text! I say, "Text Sharon," and "Text Sharon" appears in the little bubble onscreen, and then it says, "sharon is not in your Address Book" (its bubble shows "sharon" lowercased like that). Our daughters have somewhat uncommon (but not unheard-of) first names, and I'd make allowances for that -- except that when I tell it to text our very unusual last name, it pulls up the first 6 people in Contacts with that name ... starting with my wife and daughters!

I don't expect anyone here can tell me how to fix this. (If you've got a similar experience, it'd be nice to know I'm not alone; of course, I'm not trying to start a 20-page thread, though .) I guess I'm just venting a frustration with this still half-baked app.

[tikibar1]

I rarely use S-Voice because it apparently doesn't understand Southern drawl. 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Yeah, I tried "Sharon" in a variety of accents, thinking perhaps my plain Midwestern was not working, but with no success. One thing I learned: don't even think about rolling your Rs!

BTW, it's not actually the first 6 people in Contacts with our last name that it pulls up on command. It's my wife, our daughters, my sister, and two of my nieces. None of the men. I'd suspect prejudice, but it doesn't pull up all of the women either. Sheesh.

[lindamcd]

S Voice...oh man, that brings back memories. I LOVED the Galaxy S3; so beautiful. But the SVoice drove me out of my mind! I traded it in for my Razr Maxx HD. And I have been thinking about the Galaxy 4. But then I am reminded of svoice..so sad. Seems like they could fix it. My sister's name is xxxxx Fike. I actually had to enter her name as xxxxx Pike to get Svoice to recognize it! And one time I asked it 'Call Rite Aid Pharmacy'   It came back with this, ' I can do a web search for Rite Aid Pharmacy' Really? And I had so much trouble getting it to work with my Jawbone Era bluetooth. Ahh, maybe I'll give it another try? They are SO pretty! And the cameras are awesome.

>>Personal information removed<<

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

[Edcoopdeville]

Simply disable S-Voice, which will cause your phone to default to Google Now and that should resolve your voice dialing issue.

Go to "settings" -> "more" tab -> "Application Manager" -> swipe over to select "All" -> click "S Voice" -> click "Force stop" -> click "Disable"

Your phone should now default to Google Now and that should resolve your voice dialing issue.

I found out about this in another thread and after disabling S-Voice I have not had any problems with voice dialing since.

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Thanks, Ed. I'm not sure I quite follow. I disabled S Voice, but now when I press the Home key twice or tap the microphone icon in the Phone app, nothing happens at all. If I want to voice dial I still have to tap the Voice Search shortcut or Google Search widget to do voice dialing. Am I missing some other step?

[Dave-in-Decatur]

One more point on this: if S Voice is disabled Voice control in Settings > My device > Call settings > Answering/ending calls is not available (it doesn't appear on the settings screen). I'm trying out using it to answer calls, so I've re-enabled S Voice.