[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshootin] spocko:
Old thread, but I'll revive it because I want to talk about the same subject. I agree with the OP, and I'm surprised how badly Android/Samsung handles blutetooth voice dialing. (My last phone was an iPhone 3GS, and voice dialing worked great from day 1 back with iOS 3 or 4, whatever it originally came with.)

I frequently use bluetooth voice dialing in my car, either from a headset or speaker phone. This is a must-have feature for me.

Svoice is completely unacceptable because it requires the phone to be unlocked. If you have to mess with the phone to unlock it, then that defeats the purpose of voice dialing. I do understand that Svoice can do other things besides voice dialing, things which should be restricted by the lock screen. What I don't understand is why they don't give the users the options to enable selected features such as voice dialing while the phone is locked. But they don't, so Svoice had to go.

With Svoice uninstalled or disabled, Google Search takes over the voice dialing duties. It works ok, or at least it used to with Google Search v2.x. One thing about it that I don't like is that it wakes the phone (activates the screen) when you initiate voice dialing, so you can end up with accidental screen touches while voice dialing (if you don't have a pass code, or if it hasn't timed out yet). The screen should remain locked.

In recent versions of Google Search (starting in v3.x?), they decided to make voice dialing worse! If a person has multiple numbers, you can not directly select one, you have to wade through a stupid menu every time.

Say for example I have a contact named Tim Brown who has 3 numbers: home, work, mobile

With Google Search 2.x, you can do this:

Me: Call Jim Brown Home (or I can even just say "Call Jim Home" if I only have one Jim in my contacts)

Phone: Do you want to call Jim Brown at home? Say OK or Cancel.

Me: Ok

Phone: dials

With Google Search 3.x it ignores the location and always presents a menu:

Me: Call Jim Brown Home (the word "Home" is ignored)

Phone: Say Select 1 for Jim Brown Home, Say Select 2 for Jim Brown Work, Say Select 3 for Jim Brown Mobile, or say Cancel

Me: (If I can remember which freaking number was Home) Select 1

Phone: Do you want to call Jim Brown at home? Say OK or cancel

Me: (Yes I do, you stupid phone, I just told you so!) OK

Phone: dials

What a pain in the butt that is. Ironically, if you open Google Search by launching the app (i.e. by interacting with the screen), then it will listen to the "Home" part. It just ignores it if you are voice dialing, which is where you really need it. Does anybody from Google actually use this stuff?

My solution is this. Since my phone is rooted, I have the option of uninstalling Google Search v3.x, find v2.8 on the Internet, and install it on my phone. Then be sure to ignore any updates in the Play store. This works good enough. I can select a specific number when voice dialing, and I can voice dial while the phone is locked. It still turns on the phone screen when I voice dial, but I can live with that.

Note that I don't use Google Now, so I don't care about any new features that are included in the newer versions of Google Search. If you do use Google Now, this solution may not be acceptable to you.

If anyone else has a better solution, please share it. :)

Thanks