Are you in this situation? Your smartphone keeps displaying a notification “downloading offline speech recognition data”. Or other times it displays “English (US) offline recognition data updates downloading.” You’ve never downloaded any speech recognition app on your phone. The annoying thing is that the notification keeps on popping up regularly.
Also, the update is automatic which consumes your data and phone storage. You’ve been trying to stop it without any success. If this defines your situation, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn how you can stop the automatic speech recognition downloads. But first;
What Is Offline Speech Recognition Data?
Offline speech recognition data is a voice recognition system with the ability to recognize the voice and deliver data from it. The system works offline meaning you do not need an internet connection to use it. The system is a Google creation found in every smartphone using Android as the operating system.
How Does This System Works?
With smart technology taking shape, voice recognition is becoming a central component in smart devices. The use of voice assistants such as Alexia and Siri is now a norm. It is, therefore, now easy to command your smart devices using your voice. With these developments, voice recognition has become one of the central parts of smartphones.
Online Vs Offline Speech Recognition Data Systems
Did you know that there are two types of speech recognition systems? The first one is online meaning it requires an internet connection to operate. The other is the offline system that can work without an internet connection. The two, however, differ on their rate of interpreting a voice into a text. The online system experience some delays in the interpretation process.
Sometimes, the process could take some milliseconds or even seconds. This happens as the device needs to send the spoken words to servers to display the words in text form. Remember, the system must get the voice and understand it before displaying it in the text form. The delays also consume both data and battery.
The Birth Of Offline Speech Recognition
To eliminate delays, Google developed a voice recognition system that can work offline. The offline system made the process faster which save the rate of battery consumption. So, you can write or search for items on an Android smartphone using your voice.
For instance, you can write and send a text using your voice instead of typing. Nonetheless, the system is automatic and keeps updating itself. It does this to deal with bugs and improve voice recognition ability.
How To Stop Speech Recognition Download
Like many smartphone users, speech recognition might not be your thing. You do not have to use voice search or speech typing. As such, the speech recognition download notifications must be annoying. Despite the benefits of this feature, you may be unhappy with the regular updates. Your efforts to stop the automatic downloads have been unsuccessful.
If this is the case, here are the steps to stopping the speech recognition download:
Go To The Google App On Your Android Smartphone
The first step in this process is going to the Google app. To do this, navigate through your phone’s app drawer. Or else, you can check on the google apps folder as the naming varies in different smartphones.
Click The Three Horizontal Lines Button
Next, click the three-lined icon. If you like, you may call it the “hamburger” icon, just like many call it. Scroll down to the setting icon.
Tap The Setting Icon And Go To Voice
When you tap on the setting icon, you will see the voice option. The option is under the search category. Tap on this voice icon and proceed.
Open the offline speech recognition option
Now, under the voice icon, scroll down to the offline speech recognition option. This item is the one you need to work on to stop the annoying notification. Tap this feature and open it.
Go To The Installed Option And Click “Cancel Download”
When you open this feature, you will see two options. The first option is the installed tab. Under it, there is a cancel download message option. Click on it. This aspect will open a popup box asking you to confirm your action.
Click “Stop Download” On The Pop-Up Box
Since you want to stop the automatic download, you need to confirm your action. So, on the pop-up box, click the “stop download” option. Great, you have solved your issue. You’ll never get those annoying offline speech recognition download notifications.
Bonus tip: stopping the auto-updates of the offline speech recognition
Probably, you do not use the speech recognition feature on your phone. If this is the case, you need to stop the auto-updates of this feature. This aspect will save your data and storage space on your smartphone. To stop the auto-updates, click the auto-updates options. This tab is on the same page with the installed icon.
When you tap on this icon, however you will have different options. These options include “do not auto-update languages,” auto-update languages at any time,” and “auto-update languages on Wi-Fi only.” Since you want to stop it, select the “do not auto-update languages.”
What If You Want To Auto-Update The Offline Speech Recognition While Using Wi-Fi?
You might want to be up-to-date with the development of this feature but only through Wi-Fi. In this case, you can choose the Wi-Fi only option. This way, no updates will occur when you are using your mobile data.
Wrapping Up
In a word, stopping the offline speech recognition download is not a hard process. You do not need a technician to fix this issue. It applies the same process as other features on your smartphone. If the issue has been challenging, you now have a way to resolve it. Following the above steps will help you stop those annoying downloads notifications.
Also, this article offers a bonus on how you can stop the auto-updates of the speech recognition feature entirely. Plus, an option to keep the updates without using up your mobile data. With these tips, you now have control over your offline speech recognition feature.