Google’s Project Relate gets wider Play Store availability, Material You redesign

Google announced Project Relate in late 2021 as a way for people with speech impairments to create a personalized speech model. The Project Relate app is now seeing wider Play Store availability.

The app has you record at least 500 phrases to learn your unique speech patterns. This takes 1-2 hours and “can be spread over multiple sessions.” Afterwards, it takes another “few days” for everything to be processed and to create the personalized speech model. 

Project Relate, which is “currently in beta,” was publicly listed on the Play Store to Google’s main developer account in the past few days. Previously, access was given to people who filled out a form and met the early testing requirements.

Now, anybody can download the app and start the sign-up process, though Google notes how  “you may be accepted to join immediately, or you may have to wait.” It requires confirming that: 

• Strangers or people I just met find it difficult to understand my speech (and not just because of an accent).
• I am 18 years of age or over.
• Even after recording 500 phrases, Project
• Relate may still not understand me perfectly.
• I will need to record each phrase word-for-word in order to teach Relate to understand me.
• I understand that the phrases I record will also be used to help improve Google’s speech technologies and the products and services that use them.

Additionally, it’s only currently accepting users in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. A device running Android 8.0+ is required.

Once you have full access, you can use your voice model to transcribe your speech, with the ability to copy/paste it elsewhere. What you recorded can also be repeated back using text-to-speech, or you can talk directly to Google Assistant.

Meanwhile, the Play Store listing shows how Project Relate was updated with Material You and added a bottom bar since it was first announced. The app still has a navigation drawer, but previously used top tabs to get to core parts of the app: Record, Repeat, and Assistant. Other key capabilities include:

• Relate Keyboard: Use speech to text in any app using our keyboard
• Custom Cards: Teach the app important phrases, names, and locations