Another day, another update! This time it comes from the popular third-party Google TV remote app Able Remote, and it is featuring the much anticipated Voice Search functionality. This comes just a day after the official Google TV Remote app for Android got its Voice Search update, so let’s jump right in and see how Able Remote stacks up!

The Voice Search feature works as intended. You can press the “Voice Command” button and simply start talking to your smartphone. Able Remote’s solution does fall a little behind compared to the official Google TV Remote app, though. Instead of sending you straight to the search results, Able Remote’s Voice Search simply recognizes your speech and places it in the search bar. From there, one must either press enter or make a selection from the recommendations.

In short, Able Remote does force you to take one more step before accessing your Voice Search results. Though a bit annoying, this may not be a huge problem for Able Remote fans. The app offers great flexibility, customization options and extra features. It is arguably superior to the official remote app in many ways (read our review). We are almost sure Able Remote fans will happily drop Google’s remote app even with the third=party app’s small disadvantage.

We are just happy to see Voice Search functionality coming to Able Remote at all. The company recently released a slightly vague and disappointing statement mentioning the app could not get Voice Search Functionality. The reason was the lack of availability on Google’s API, and there was no mention of wether the app would get Voice Search or not in the future.

The stars have aligned and it is all working now, though, so go enjoy it! You can get the update straight from the Google Play Store. Make sure you get the latest update on both your smartphone and your Google TV so it all works smoothly. What do you guys say – are you going with Able Remote or the Google TV Remote app?

Update

First and foremost, I would like to apologize to our readers for making a small (yet important) mistake when testing this update. We mention above that Able Remote’s Voice Search feature has an extra step when performing a search. It turns out this was not the case at all.

Voice Search has to be activated in the settings before it can shine its true colors. Simply go to menu > settings > Voice Search and check the box to enable the feature. After doing this, you will find that Voice Search works as expected, just like the official Google TV Remote app for Android.

Thanks Leon and RoboRobP!

[Source: Able Remote]