Unlock the Power of Voice Assistance in Your React App
What is React Speech Recognition?
React Speech Recognition is a game-changing React Hook that harnesses the Web Speech API to convert spoken words into text, allowing your app to respond accordingly. This innovative technology enables you to create voice-controlled experiences that can perform tasks, provide information, and more.
Browser Support
As of February 2021, React Speech Recognition supports a range of browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome for Android, Android Webview, and Samsung Internet. Unfortunately, iOS devices do not support these APIs.
Setting Up React Speech Recognition
To get started, simply open your terminal and type npm install react-speech-recognition. This will add the hook to your project. Next, build a demo UI to see the speech recognition Hook in action.
Building a Demo UI
Create a simple UI with a round button featuring a mic icon, a button to indicate whether the app is listening, and a stop button to halt the process. Below these elements, display the user’s speech-to-text translation and add a reset button to clear the text and stop listening.
Adding React Speech Recognition Hooks
To utilize React Speech Recognition, import it into your component and use the useSpeechRecognition hook and SpeechRecognition object. Start listening to the user’s voice by calling the startListening function, and stop listening by calling stopListening. The transcript function records the user’s spoken words, while resetTranscript clears the value.
Using React Speech Recognition to Perform Tasks
Now that you’ve set up the app, it’s time to add commands to perform tasks based on user speech and phrases. Prepare your commands array by passing an array of JSON objects with command and callback properties. This allows you to capture multiple words and pass them back as a variable in the callback function.
Full Code and Next Steps
With everything in place, you’re ready to run your app and explore the possibilities of voice assistance. Remember to allow microphone permission when you run the app for the first time. For future reference, you can find the full code for the app we created using React Speech Recognition Hooks.
Take Your App to the Next Level
By integrating React Speech Recognition into your project, you can unlock a world of possibilities for voice-controlled experiences. Continue learning about programming by voice and the other ways AI can assist in your coding endeavors.