Vlingo Adds Voice Check-ins to Foursquare

Vlingo today added voice support to Foursquare on Android handsets, allowing Foursquare users to checkin, find friends and send shouts through speech-to-text. The updated version of Vlingo, available in the Android Market, can also be used to update a user’s social status on Facebook, Twitter or both at the same time.

The implementation of the new voice feature is well done and takes advantage of Android’s ability to use home screen widgets. And from a hands-free perspective, Vlingo requires a minimum of button presses, although in the future, I’d love to see the app simply stop listening once it detects silence for a second or two — much as Android’s native voice-to-text features work. All in all, the use of voice for even short bursts of texts often trumps pecking on a software keyboard, so the new Vlingo version will appeal to many. And as mobile broadband latency decreases with next-generation networks, voice apps like Vlingo are sure to get faster.

Although the voice-integration with Foursquare is only for Android devices now, Vlingo says that versions for Symbian S60, BlackBerry and iOS are coming soon. Vlingo is based in Cambridge, Mass. and has raised $ 26.5 million in funding since 2006 from Charles River Ventures, Sigma Partners and Yahoo!

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