A method for quickly starting an application service, and a terminal. The method includes acquiring, by a terminal, event trigger information; starting, by the terminal, the application service software after determining that the event trigger information meets a preset quick startup condition; and acquiring, by the terminal, a voice instruction input by a user, and running the application service software according to the voice instruction. According to the method provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure, application service software is started by using event trigger information, so that a background of a terminal starts to perform recording only after the application service software is started, and background recording is stopped after the terminal provides an application service for a user, preventing a recording device in the background of the terminal from being always in a recording state, and further reducing power consumption of the terminal.

Systems and processes for call assistance using contact suggestions are provided. For example, a first input including a name reference is received from a user. A response to the first input is provided, and a second input is received from the user. An outgoing call event associated with a contact identifier is detected within a predetermined time from receiving the second input. In accordance with a determination that the outgoing call event satisfies a predetermined criterion, an association between the name reference and the contact identifier is stored.

An electronic device includes a device housing supporting a touch actuator operable to initiate a predefined function of the electronic device. One or more processors of the electronic device are operable with the touch actuator. The one or more processors preclude initiation of the predefined function when a predefined condition occurs while the touch actuator is actuated.

Techniques are disclosed for connecting third-party accessories to a cellular-capable device to participate in a telephone call. In one example, a user can voice a request to make a call to an accessory device. The accessory device can transmit the request to a controller device. Upon processing the request, the controller device can identify an appropriate cellular-capable device and instruct the cellular-capable device to place the requested call. The controller device can also instruct the cellular-capable device to establish an audio connection with the accessory device to relay the call audio. In another example, the controller device can listen for a word spoken at the accessory device indicating the end of the call. Upon receiving the end of call word, the controller device can instruct the cellular-capable device to terminate the call. While in the listening state, the controller device may continue processing user requests received at other accessory devices.

A speech recognition telecommunications system with distributable units. The system includes a primary unit and one or more secondary units, wherein the primary unit includes a processor, memory, a logic, a telecommunications transceiver configured to connect to a telecommunications network, and a secondary transceiver in communication with the secondary units. The secondary units are distributable throughout a structure and each include a transceiver, speaker, and a microphone for relaying received audio signals back to the primary unit. In operation, the primary unit receives a user's audio via its microphone or via transmission from a secondary unit. The logic then compares the user's vocal pattern to stored vocal patterns to confirm a user match. If there is a user match, then the logic compares the user's spoken command to a library of predetermined commands, wherein the processor executes the matching command from the library.

A system for determining the status of an answered telephone during the course of an outbound telephone call includes an automated telephone calling device for placing a telephone call to a location having a telephone number at which a target person is listed, upon the telephone call being answered, initiating a prerecorded greeting which asks for the target person and receiving a spoken response from an answering person and a speech recognition device for performing a speech recognition analysis on the spoken response to determine a status of the spoken response. If the speech recognition device determines that the answering person is the target person, the speech recognition device initiates a speech recognition application with the target person.

A system, method, and computer readable medium that facilitate user authentication via voice biometrics in a network system featuring interactive voice response system access is provided. The voice biometric authentication mechanisms alleviate identity theft occurring via specific interactive voice response transactions. A voice biometrics authentication system interfaces with an interactive network platform and may be hosted by a third party provider of voice biometric technologies.

A system and method for utilizing a plain-old-telephone (“POT”) to interface with a digital assistant system. The POT is linked to an interface adapted to selectively provide a bidirectional audio connection to a standard telephone communication network, or to provide an interface to a digital assistant system in response to user voice commands. The functionality of the POT digital assistant interface being dependent upon the user input—DTMF tone/pulse dialing signals as opposed to voice commands spoken into the POT mouthpiece. Audio cues and prompts, as well as audio responses from the digital assistant system are provided to the user via the POT earpiece. Digital assistant functionality is provided via a simple and familiar interface, without impeding any standard voice telephony functionality (making/receiving calls, call waiting, caller ID, etc.)

The disclosed embodiments include computerized methods, systems, and devices, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for generating terms of a search query based on a user's spoken utterances, identifying multiple cross-platform messages based on the generated terms, and to generating, via a presentation device, a single interface that enables the user to interact with identified messages. Based on a spoken utterance, the disclosed embodiments may determine user-specified search terms and/or criteria, and based on the user-specified search terms and/or criteria, may obtain cross-platform message data that corresponds to the search query. The communications device may generate one or more interface elements that describe corresponding ones of the cross-platform messages, which may be presented within a unified graphical user interface or voice-user interface by a communications device.

Utterances of at least two speakers in a speech signal may be distinguished and the associated speaker identified by use of diarization together with automatic speech recognition of identifying words and phrases commonly in the speech signal. The diarization process clusters turns of the conversation while recognized special form phrases and entity names identify the speakers. A trained probabilistic model deduces which entity name(s) correspond to the clusters.