[Review] VoiceUtils - The Siri-Based Action Toggles for iOS

**Anthony Bouchard** · 01-21-2012, 07:00 PM

And the Siri tweaks start rolling in...

Here comes a new era for jailbreaking, folks. The one and only Siri iDevice has been cracked open. Now begins the development for third party Siri support. One tweak that we have seen released into Cydia today has been dubbed VoiceUtils by iOS developer Nick Frey which allows you to use Siri for your iDevice booting needs. The only prerequisite to use it? You need Siri of course! This will work on an iPhone 4S or on any iDevice with a Siri port installed such as Grant Paul's and Ryan Petich's Spire port. You can even use it to replace GUI toggles such as SBSettings.

Siri, until recently, has been limited to what Apple's wanted it to do. Thanks to the fact that it was opened up in the latest release of iOS 5.0.1, it is actually wide open for developers to improve upon it. The VoiceUtils tweak will let you invoke actions such as a hard restart (rebooting the iDevice), soft restart (respringing the iDevice), turning off the iDevice, or kicking yourself into Safe Mode. How do you do it? Just invoke Siri, then tell Siri what to do - done.

This is great because you can use Siri to control the 'toggles' that you've always loved to use on your iPhone since the beginning of SBSettings. This means that you will not have a ton of software toggles cluttering Notification Center which helps with reducing lag and at the same time, you can make Siri more useful than it ever was before. Plus, if you're lazy, it means less taps for you. It makes a great combination with Hands-Free Control too.

What are some of the downsides? Well, if you are telling your iPhone commands out loud such as respring, you might seem cool, but you will feel awkward when the non-tech-savvy girl next to you asks you what that means. Oh and additionally, if you're not a great speaker, Siri could always misunderstand you. It would be terrible if you asked Siri to reboot and you ended up respringing instead.

Personally, I think that VoiceUtils is a great start for making Siri very useful. I hope to see more feature added to it or more Siri tweaks made that will make Siri a more powerful tool. VoiceUtils will not work with Voice Control. It requires iOS 5 because iOS 5 is the only iOS to support Siri. There are no settings to configure. Just install, respring, and use. VoiceUtils is free in Cydia right now, go and get it if it seems cool to you!

Name: VoiceUtils
Price: FREE
Version: 1.0
Repo: BigBoss
Developer: Nick Frey
Editor's Rating:  4/5

How do you think that VoiceUtils could be improved? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Sources: Cydia

**Lewnsy78** · 01-21-2012, 07:08 PM

Sounds sweet I'm off to get it now!!

**NickFrey** · 01-21-2012, 07:08 PM

Hi guys, thanks for the review! I've just submitted an update to VoiceUtils and later tonight it should be available, which adds the ability to launch any of your stock apps, app store apps, or webclips using Siri! Hope you enjoy.

**R.Mortera** · 01-21-2012, 07:09 PM

And the Siri tweaks starts rolling in.

Awesome quote!

**frejes32** · 01-21-2012, 07:14 PM

Anyone else having trouble with Cydia? I just jailbroke my 4S and I just keep getting errors and cache failures. It's probably because of the extremely heavy traffic right now, but I can't even get Cydia to load completely.

**Jbrooks424** · 01-21-2012, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by NickFrey

Hi guys, thanks for the review! I've just submitted an update to VoiceUtils and later tonight it should be available, which adds the ability to launch any of your stock apps, app store apps, or webclips using Siri! Hope you enjoy.

WHAO!!! COOL!!! do u think ur gonna add the ability to toggle 3g, and wifi, and other sb settings toggles?

**hitman10** · 01-21-2012, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by NickFrey

Hi guys, thanks for the review! I've just submitted an update to VoiceUtils and later tonight it should be available, which adds the ability to launch any of your stock apps, app store apps, or webclips using Siri! Hope you enjoy.

Hey man great tweak. Thanks! and really hope we get to launch apps too.

**BenderRodriguez** · 01-21-2012, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by frejes32

Anyone else having trouble with Cydia? I just jailbroke my 4S and I just keep getting errors and cache failures. It's probably because of the extremely heavy traffic right now, but I can't even get Cydia to load completely.

It's fine for me, sounds like you should restore and jailbreak I had to do that myself, and now it's fast, the jailbreak is quick now cause most ppl have it, CYDIA IS SO FAST FOR ME

**NakedFaerie** · 01-21-2012, 08:09 PM

It says you can use any Siri port. Does it have to work?
The last Siri port I used did work for about 30 mins then stopped and refused to work after that.

So Does it need to connect to Apple for this to work? If not I'll install it again and give this a go.

**Anthony Bouchard** · 01-21-2012, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by NakedFaerie

It says you can use any Siri port. Does it have to work?
The last Siri port I used did work for about 30 mins then stopped and refused to work after that.

So Does it need to connect to Apple for this to work? If not I'll install it again and give this a go.

Go ahead and try it and report back with results. Interesting question, but it's a question that I don't have the answer to.

**steve-z17** · 01-21-2012, 09:18 PM

Works for me. It's pretty nice. I'm sure we'll be getting a lot more from Siri in the next little bit which is awesome.

**Gigahawk** · 01-21-2012, 09:21 PM

Do I need a siri proxy for this to work if i use a ipt4?

**slayorktc** · 01-21-2012, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by NickFrey

Hi guys, thanks for the review! I've just submitted an update to VoiceUtils and later tonight it should be available, which adds the ability to launch any of your stock apps, app store apps, or webclips using Siri! Hope you enjoy.

Connect it to IMDB = Find quotes from TV and Movies, casts (Who was that actor in that one movie?)

**cgavula** · 01-21-2012, 10:36 PM

Yeah, unfortunately, this really didn't work very well for me at all. I have a standard mid-western American accent and the only command it would recognize was "reboot". I think it might need more work.

**luvmytj** · 01-21-2012, 10:39 PM

Anyone else having trouble finding it in the BigBoss repo? I refreshed it but still no joy...

**mmaboi21** · 01-21-2012, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by frejes32

Anyone else having trouble with Cydia? I just jailbroke my 4S and I just keep getting errors and cache failures. It's probably because of the extremely heavy traffic right now, but I can't even get Cydia to load completely.

Definitely the heavy traffic. Should work now

**xclusiveiphone** · 01-22-2012, 01:15 AM

So far this is what i got:

"Power off" = Power off device
"Reboot" = Reboot
"Safe Mode" = Enter Safe Mode

"?" = Respring

Anyone figure out what to say for respring? It would be nice if this came with a command list instead of leaving us guessing...

**DonnyCapone** · 01-22-2012, 02:02 AM

awesome work. Is there any chance Siri can be made to dim or brighten the screen via voice commands?

**stentorian** · 01-22-2012, 02:29 AM

Originally Posted by xclusiveiphone

So far this is what i got:

"Power off" = Power off device
"Reboot" = Reboot
"Safe Mode" = Enter Safe Mode

"?" = Respring

Anyone figure out what to say for respring? It would be nice if this came with a command list instead of leaving us guessing...

Restart Springboard is the command for Respring. It works, i've just tried it.

**hashiriya** · 01-22-2012, 03:14 AM

you can respring by saying "Restart Springboard"

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Thread: [Review] VoiceUtils - The Siri-Based Action Toggles for iOS

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And the Siri tweaks start rolling in... Here comes a new era for jailbreaking, folks. The one and only Siri iDevice has been cracked open. Now begins the development for