Vlingo for Android Keyboard and Widget Update

While most of the feedback around our recent Android release has been positive, we have noticed that some of you are unhappy with a couple specific changes.  First, that we removed the 1×1 widget.  Second, that we removed the Vlingo Keyboard.  We just want you to know that we’ve heard you, and offer up some more information.

Regarding the 1×1 widget…

We removed it mostly because we were adding new functionality within the app itself, and felt it made the 1×1 redundant.  We were also encouraged to reduce the number of widgets we offered, and thought this was the most obvious choice given the new Auto Listen functionality.

If you want to re-create the 1×1 experience you can in three east steps with our Auto Listen option:

1.       Open Vlingo and scroll to the bottom of the home screen.

2.       Click the “Auto Listen” box.  Once a green check mark appears, exit the app by pressing the “back” key.

3.       Go to the open space on the screen you wanted to install the widget, long press down, and select Vlingo from the Shortcuts>Application folder

Then when you tap the icon, it will launch the app and begin listening immediately (just like a widget!).

Please note that once you enable the auto-listen feature, exit the app by hitting the “Back” button.  If you hit the “Home” button the app will still be running the background and so auto-listen won’t be enabled.  We recognize this isn’t perfect, and we will be improving the Auto-Listen function with an update scheduled for later this month.  Appreciate your patience while we fine-tune this new option.

Regarding the Vlingo Keyboard…

We removed the keyboard primarily because it was taking more and more time (and requiring more device storage space) to keep it updated as we added languages.  We also felt our expertise wasn’t really as a company that makes keyboards.  There are other good options out there, from companies whose sole mission is to make great touch keyboards.

Starting with Android 2.2, you can still select Vlingo as the default voice-input option and have our service easily accessible via the microphone button on any Android keyboard.  Is it exactly the same?  Admittedly, no.  But we think we’ll be able to deliver more value to you over time by focusing on what we do best.

If you’re missing the Vlingo functionality as part of your keyboard, and you’re running 2.2 or higher:

1.       Go to Settings

2.       Select Voice input & output

3.       Select Vlingo under the Voice Recognizer drop down

Then you can access Vlingo via the microphone button on whatever keyboard you use!

For the roughly 25% of our customers who don’t have 2.2 or higher yet, please check with your carrier to see if an update is available.  If not, we apologize.  We expect all Android users to have the update within a few months, and we tried our best to strike a good balance.  We can only ask you to stick with us until the same keyboard functionality is available.

If any of you have questions, please send a note to us at www.vlingo.com/support or post a comment below.  We’ll do our best to answer each and every question as quickly as we can and incorporate your feedback into upcoming releases.

Thanks for the continued support.

TJ