Are you an utter nutter? - Android Siri rival hits alpha stage

The impressive speech app Utter, set to rival Siri when released, received another alpha release recently in order that bugs can be quickly found and ironed out. Now that more features are being added in the testing phase it's your chance to get involved and help make it a contender for Siri's crown. Haven't a clue what Utter! is or just want to get in on what could be the next big thing for Android? All will be revealed....


The Utter app demonstrated in the popular YouTube video (as you can see shortly) had no actual interface as it was simply a test designed specifically for one particular person (the developer) and their own Android device. To make sure each and every part of Utter works on every possible android device developer Brandall has been releasing regular incremental versions of the app for testing purposes. Initial releases were simply to test voice recognition but a second release added wifi functionality, a third added partial bluetooth control and a recent update added some functions for root users.

Updates are coming surprisingly fast thanks to the developers persistence and the feedback of testers using the test version available free from the play store (formerly known as the Android market). If you want to help by downloading the test version simply click here and if you find any problems when using it then get in touch with the developer and let him know as he really does respond and it really will help make the finished version even better.The test app is called nUtter (short for “not Utter”) and uses a basic interface designed solely to help road test what, when complete, will be released as Utter. It has a set of tabs and currently allows you to wifi and bluetooth on (or off) and also to test how well it runs on your device.

It's already gaining some useful features despite its early stages, but rather than release an app and then try patching it to work on all possible devices Brandall has chosen the slower but more reliable route of adding things bit by bit, seeing if a feature causes any problems and then fixing any that are found. This is already paying dividends with one “bug” that affected only a few devices (including my own) and stopped them being able to turn wifi on or off being identified and fixed literally within hours.

In this case it wasn’t a bug caused by the app itself but rather by the fact that some Android devices work slightly different to others when it comes to accessing the hardware and so extra code was needed to ensure that the app would work on all devices in the same way. The developers choice to upgrade incrementally is working well with it being much easier to iron out one bug early on rather than release the full version prematurely and have to spend weeks or even months sifting through lots of code trying to find the problem, it makes sense and will mean that when Utter debuts it will be a much more stable and polished product with few if any compatability issues.

So why write about an app that isn't yet ready for prime time? The answer is simple, to encourage Android users to test the app and provide the developer with feedback. Doing this will not only result in a much more stable and polished finished app but speeds up the bug hunting process, making it easier for the developer to iron them out and bringing the launch of Utter closer than it otherwise would be.

So if you want Android to have a real rival to Siri, and you'd like to have a hand in influencing its development, download nUtter and give it a go.