Vlingo, a provider of intelligent voice applications, has announced a new feature for Android (News - Alert) users that allows consumers to use Foursquare by speaking to their phone.
Thanks to the seamless integration, Vlingo (News - Alert) users can now speak to their phone to check in, connect with their friends, or shout out an update on foursquare, said company officials.
Noting that location and social networking have become an integral part of consumers’ everyday lives, Hadley Harris, vice president of marketing at Vlingo, said that so having a strategic alliance with foursquare to provide users with a simple, easy way to connect with their friends is a “natural fit” for Vlingo.
“Vlingo’s mission is to quickly connect our customers to the people, businesses, and services that are important to them. Integrating with foursquare’s industry leading platform is a natural way to help facilitate those connections,” Harris said.
Foursquare is a mobile application that makes cities easier to use and interesting to explore. It is a friend-finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to experience new things, and rewards them for doing so
Holger Luedorf, vice president of mobile and partnerships for foursquare, said that by making it easier for Android users to check in and communicate with friends through foursquare, “Vlingo is broadening our consumer appeal.”
The companies believe that Vlingo’s integration with foursquare “raises the bar” for social applications as users have the flexibility in how they connect with the people that are important to them.
Users can use their voice to launch foursquare by speaking into their Android device. Company officials said that check in Hong Kong Express; check in to locations; check into Logan Airport. In addition, they cal also locate friends; send shout outs; and more.
Company officials said that this latest release of Vlingo also enables users to share Vlingo with their friends using new “Share Vlingo” button. Moreover, they can also update Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter and/or foursquare at the same time by just saying “social update” and speaking the update.
Additionally, Vlingo for Android can power most tasks on Android devices. Users can press the “Vlingo widget” to send text and email messages; search the web using Google (News - Alert) or Yahoo!; update Facebook and Twitter status; open built-in and 3rd party applications; and more.
Currently, Vlingo is available for Android 2.x and above. Vlingo plans to roll out this functionality to other Vlingo supported platforms in a future release.
Earlier this year, Vlingo entered into an agreement with Intellectual Ventures (News - Alert), gaining non-exclusive rights to Intellectual Ventures’ large portfolio of patents through a license agreement.
Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Juliana Kenny