Mountain View, CA – Google app Voice Actions Lets Users Dictate Text, Emails

Mountain View, CA – Remember when Google used to be the coolest company in the world, constantly coming up with new products, tips and tools that made you open your mouth and go “Wow?”

We’re thinking Google Maps, Google Voice and Google Translate. Well, it’s been quite a while, but Google finally has another jaw-opener — Voice Actions.

This is a new mobile app for Android phones, but it only works on a handful of phones.

Voice Actions takes the Voice Search tools we’ve seen on the iPhone and Android phones to another level. Now, you can dictate text messages and e-mails without ever touching any keys, and make calls to specific locations by barking orders into the phone. For instance, “Call Volare restaurant, San Francisco.”

Voice Actions looks up the restaurant, using Google Maps, and places the call for you.

I tested Voice Actions with Google engineers in a demo this week, throwing out names of many different restaurants, and Google got it right every time.

The app is free and really cool, and again, that’s the good news.

But if you want the app, you’ll only find it on the new Motorola Droid 2 from Verizon — which is expected in stores today — and the now discontinued Nexus One. Those phones run the updated Android 2.2 software, which Google says will be rolled out gradually to other Android phones, including Sprint’s HTC Evo and older Droid phones.

“We expect other Android devices to receive the Android 2.2 software update over the next few months,” says Google, in a statement.