SayMyName review

Damien McFerran

We review SayMyName, an app that uses the Android's new Text-to-speech function

Published on Oct 28, 2009

The recent 1.6 “Donut” update for Google’s Android platform introduced many cool new features, but aside from the myriad performance enhancements the one aspect that interests us the most is the new Text-to-Speech feature.

Since 1.6 dropped we’ve been wondering how this new element would be best used, and now that SayMyName is here, we need wonder no longer.

Produced by coder Tom Tasche as part of his entry to the Android Developer Challenge, this app does what its title suggests – it reads out the name of anyone who calls your phone, providing they’re already in your contacts list.

The idea being if your phone is in your pocket, you will hear who is calling you before you even reach in to retrieve it. If the audible notification contains the moniker of someone you’d rather not speak to, you can simply ignore the call and leave your phone where it is.

Because SayMyName makes use of 1.6’s shiny new TTS service, you’ll need to download the additional speech packs before you can use it. This is easily done via the Android Marketplace and is totally free of charge.

Once you’ve done this you can tinker with the settings in order to get the voice you want. You can alter the speed of speech, the depth of the voice and even the language – although obviously when it comes to reading someone’s name, it doesn’t actually matter what dialect it’s in.

Other settings exclusive to SayMyName include the option to only have the caller’s first name read out, the ability to override the phone’s mute option so you hear the speech even when your ringer is off and the chance to hear the name repeated until you pick up the call. You can even delay your standard ringtone so it doesn’t kick in too early and drown out the speech.

The developer has been very open about this app and is welcoming bug reports and other recommendations, which is refreshing. That said, SayMyName is pretty much perfect as it is; the biggest issue is that the current standard of TTS speech synthesis is pretty poor; names are often mispronounced and it all comes across as a little bit robotic – but then maybe that’s perfectly fitting for the Android platform?