Calling loved ones with voice dialing has always been a little too robotic on Android phones. You couldn’t say something like “call my wife” unless you used the words “My Wife” in place of her actual name in your address book.
Thankfully, that’s starting to change with the latest update to the Google Search app for Android. You can now say things like “call my mom” or “call my brother,” and Google will ask which contact you’re trying to reach. Enter the actual name once, and you’ll forever be able to voice dial using the relationship name instead.
Android Police has come up with a list of relationship names that work so far:
- Husband
- Wife
- Father/Dad
- Mother/Mom
- Brother
- Sister
- Cousin
- Niece
- Nephew
- Aunt
- Uncle
- Grandmother/Grandma
- Grandfather/Grandpa
- Girlfriend
- Boyfriend
Unfortunately, once you’ve associated a contact with a relationship, that association doesn’t get listed anywhere within Google Contacts. There doesn’t seem to be any way to change an association (say, if you press the wrong contact name when making your selection).
Apple’s Siri still does a better job with relationships, letting you specify nicknames for anyone in your contacts list for dialing them by voice. But this is a good start for Android that’ll save you some time when calling loved ones.