Technology is increasingly extending to more everyday aspects, something as common as calling mom or dad (applicable to both adults and children) is possible just by saying it to the mobile , which will dial the number and call automatically.
This is possible thanks to voice assistants , which are able to recognize verbal commands quite accurately. We just have to think about the voice commands that Alexa and Google Assistant support , which give us very complex answers.
This trick can make things easier for children with their first mobile, but it really works for everyone. Referring as “Mom” or “Dad” to one’s parents is common in adult life, so it is natural to address the mobile in this way.
Google Assistant on Android
Today, almost any Android smartphone should have Google Assistant, since it works from version 5.0 Lollipop . The steps to make the call are as follows:
- We will say “Ok Google” to activate the assistant, or we can hold down the “home” button (a circle at the bottom of the screen), some mobiles even have a dedicated physical button:
- Now we will say out loud “call mom” or “call dad” , we can also use the imperative “call …” because you will recognize it in the same way:
- If Google has enough data to know who our mother or father is (either from the mobile phone’s agenda or another source that we have indicated), after showing the previous screen for a brief moment it will begin to call .
- On the other hand, if it does not identify the number we are trying to call, it will ask us “Who is Mom?” or “Who is Dad?” , so that we choose it on the agenda.
- It only remains to confirm the chosen phone number , and we will be able to communicate with our parents just by saying it in the Google Assistant.
Siri on iPhone
If we have an iPhone, the process does not change much, although we must use Siri, which is Apple’s own voice assistant . These are the steps to follow:
- Start by saying “Hey Siri”, or by pressing the Home button / Side button (depending on the iPhone model).
- Now we must say “Call Dad” (or Mom), by default Apple will not recognize that information (unless we have that name in the phonebook), so it will ask us how to call to find it:
- Siri asks us to confirm that this contact is our father or mother . Although he uses these more formal words, he will also understand us when we say dad or mom:
- The call will then start , and in the future Siri will already know which number to contact.
Smart speakers with Alexa or Assistant
Smart speakers also allow us to communicate with our loved ones, but they are not able to call a phone number , so they are not as comfortable.
However, if our parents are technologically up-to-date, we may be able to configure an option to speak to them just by saying their name.
For example, if you have an Amazon Echo at home and we do too, it is possible to communicate directly through Alexa. We could also add a “skill “, an extension that expands the possibilities of the speaker. For example, Alexa makes Skype calling easy.
Regarding Nest speakers, or others based on Assistant, we could use Duo, a calls and video calls app , although it is not too popular.
Whatever the method, in the end we can go to the loudspeaker asking to call mom or dad in a completely natural way, which will save us time on a day-to-day basis.
In this case, there are no clear steps similar to those we saw to call from the mobile, we have to make a different configuration depending on the means by which we want to communicate, and be sure that our parents know how to use it.
The idea of saying “Call Mom” and having the phone obey would almost sound like “magic” not many years ago, but voice recognition technologies have come a long way, and they offer us advantages like this.
