Solved Google's voice services (search, docs, translate) not working in Vivaldi

[DoctorG]

@markTpalmos I apologise, my answer was not clear enough for you.
The browser manufacturer is forced to pay licenses to use Voice, pay per browser installation and year(!). Vivaldi has not the financial resources at this time to throw money into Google's greedy mouth.

Edge works as Microsoft pays to Google. And Chrome is a Google product, i do not think they have to pay anthing.

[markTpalmos]

@DoctorG ok thanks.
Oddly, on Firefox the microphone is missing on google.co.uk, but not on Vivaldi. I wonder if it shouldn't be removed, if it is not functional and if it is possible to remove... others like me will waste their time asking questions about why it isn't working

[DoctorG]

@markTpalmos With Vivaldi showing of microphone on Google pages is a error/misdetection of Google's webdesigners, that can not be fixed by Vivaldi.

[Hunkydory]

why does Google voice search work on my Samsung / android but not on windows 11 desktop?
It says no internet?

[Pesala]

@Hunkydory It is a service that Vivaldi would have to pay for.

[Hunkydory]

@Hunkydory odd then that it works on Android?

[Pathduck]

@Hunkydory Not really - on Android the Google Voice API is a part of the OS and can be used by all browsers.

[DoctorG]

@Hunkydory But the Windows OS has no Google Voice API, thats why Vivaldi can not use.

[Hunkydory]

do you think they will introduce, my sight is not so good so the voice search really helps?

[DoctorG]

@Hunkydory For people with disablities such voice search is really useful.
As i know, it is planned that Vivaldi devs will add such search to help more users, but i do not know when this will happen.
Perhaps when Vivaldi has its own search page. Who knows.

[Pathduck]

@Hunkydory Bing voice search works on Windows at least.

Yeah not a good choice if you prefer Google but at least it works.

[Eggcorn]

@Pathduck I can confirm that, Bing voice search works on my Windows computer's Vivaldi. To use it, click the microphone icon on the Bing website's search bar.

It'd be nice if Vivaldi would support voice-search for any search-engine, like Edge does. That would work around this problem with Google voice-search not working. I'll start a feature request for that. Edit: There's already a feature request for that.

On a related note: I have to give Microsoft credit here. Vivaldi's overall a better browser than Edge, but there are some areas (such as voice-search) where Edge out-Vivaldis Vivaldi. Microsoft's come a long way from the bad old days of Internet Explorer 6!

[DoctorG]

@Eggcorn said in Google Voice Search:

It'd be nice if Vivaldi would support voice-search for any search-engine

Such voice search feature creates more traffic, such has to be paid to Google, Microsoft & Co.

[Eggcorn]

@DoctorG Why? I can type "test" (for example) into Vivaldi's search-bar, press Enter, and get a search-results page. Vivaldi gets money for that (if I use a search engine that came with Vivaldi, except Google). Why would it be different for voice-search?

[DoctorG]

@Eggcorn said in Google Voice Search:

Why would it be different for voice-search?

Ask @jane.n from Vivaldi team.

[Eggcorn]

@DoctorG said in Google Voice Search:

Ask @jane.n from Vivaldi team.

Okay. @jane.n, can you answer my question?

[Pathduck]

@Eggcorn Don't think there's any need for Jane to answer that, it can be easily "googled":
https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/pricing

For (unrooted) Android devices of course, these basically run a Google OS, so Speech-to-Text is a part of the features deal (and probably money exchanged between say Google, Samsung et al., I have no idea. For Apple devices, it's probably similar, probably a company has to pay the $$$ for an Apple Developer License to use the API.

For Windows devices obviously, they can use MS Speech API, but again, comes at a cost. It works in Bing because, well, Microsoft... it does not work in Google because ... competition and free market etc etc.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/speech-services/

These companies make money, they are not doing charity and speech-to-text costs servers, storage, bandwidth and development time...

[Eggcorn]

@Pathduck But that's for Google and Microsoft's/Bing's speech-to-text service. I'm asking about the Vivaldi browser having it's own speech-to-text built into the browser, not renting one from Google or Microsoft.

[DoctorG]

@Eggcorn said in Google Voice Search:

it's own speech-to-text built into the browser

With more Vivaldi servers, software and more financial resoruces that can be in near future.

[iAN CooG]

@DoctorG said in Google Voice Search:

more financial resoruces

that's the key, which many users never take into consideration.