Sprint discontinuing Voice Command on July 1st

Sprint's not going out of its way to make a big fuss about it, but its long-standing Voice Command service will soon be no more. The service, which allowed Sprint-Nextel phones to dial two buttons and then give voice commands to place calls, will be discontinued on July 1st, 2008, meaning that all your server-based contacts will soon be inaccessible. Aside from removing the VC fee from your monthly bill, Sprint's advising users to download and print their contact lists, and better still, it's encouraging users to rely on handset-based voice-activated dialing (or pick up a new phone if their current one can't pass muster). So long, Voice Command -- we can't imagine too many folks actually missing you.

[Via Phone Scoop]

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 27th 2008 1:41PM]

Didn't they charge for this? I always thought the service was WAY overpriced seeing that my phone could do the same thing for FREE!

[Roger A Posted Apr 27th 2008 2:47PM]

Im gonna kinda miss it, even though I havent had it since 2003 - it was a great new feature at the time, and showd that Network Support was truely moving forward for a carrier that was and still is pretty innovative. However, the price of $4.99 a month, even back then was REALLY high and for the things it did, was not worth it. There was a time I had it free, as it was included as one of 2 options in my plan. Part of the PCS Advantage Plans.

Oh well....

Oh, and phones dont do as much as Voice Command does.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 27th 2008 2:48PM]

I agree w/ C.J....I remember seeing that Sprint offered VC when I first got them about 7 years ago.

I always wondered what good it was since every phone I've ever had on Sprint (all Samsung models so far) offered some form of voice-activated dialing that worked reasonably well for free.

[finalfantasyeternal Posted Apr 27th 2008 7:56PM]

I used this once way back when I first started with Sprint. Found it useless after the first free month I had of it and ditched it.

--James

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 28th 2008 7:15AM]

I use the voice command feature on my Mogul. Which is nice, no monthly fee and my contacts are stored on my phone.

[(Unverified) Posted May 6th 2008 6:17PM]

This is a terrific service and I am very sorry to see it go away.
Benefits:
1 - Holds up to 500 contacts and 5 numbers for each
2 - Easy dialing hit * and then the talk button
3 - If you lose your telephone, the numbers are still there
4 - Very easy to upload and manage numbers

At $5.00 per month it is worth every penny.

Paul

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 24th 2008 9:13PM]

Unfortunately, there's a slew of blind, elderly, and disabled people who relied on this service heavily. Unbelievably, many won't know it went away until they try to make some important call to doctor, taxi, hospital, relative, etc. The only notification was via US mail, and most of these folk don't do physical mail too well:
http://tinyurl.com/59229y