Nuance Communications, Inc., the company behind the Dragon speech recognition software, announced the beta launch on Nuance Mix, a new tool that can be utilized by developers to integrate speech recognition into their own apps or devices. All developers have to do is specify what commands Nuance Mix should watch out for to be able to analyze it and perform appropriate actions.

One example is the integration of Nuance Mix into social networking apps, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. A user can simply say, “Update my status,” “Post a new status,” “Change my status,” or even “I want to post something,” and it will be able to understand that all of these commands mean the same thing: that you want to post something on your social page. This is possible because developers will have to come up with 15-20 variations of a command. In addition, Nuance Mix is a learning tool that is able to generate alternatives on its own the more people use it.

In addition to being integrated into apps, Nuance can also be integrated into Internet of Things devices. At the moment, these connected things are controlled using an app on a smartphone, but Nuance wants to make controlling them easier by utilizing a user’s voice. The usere could simply talk to make connected things in their house turn on or off, set schedules, lock the door, adjust the thermostat and more.

“A lot of these devices don’t necessarily have a screen,” says Kenn Harper, a senior director at Nuance. “So a thermostat may have a tiny screen or a couple of buttons, but if you want to tell it you’re traveling for a couple of days … how would you do that without speech?”

What Nuance Mix is trying to achieve is not entirely new, as Apple has already integrated the use of Siri into its smart home platform HomeKit, allowing HomeKit compatible devices to be controlled using voice commands. The only difference is that Siri-integration is not available to all developers.

Developers can try the beta release of Nuance Mix for free, but the official release will come at a price. No news yet as to when the official release will come out and how much it will cost developers.

Learn more about Nuance Mix by watching the video below:

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