Last year in the US, we introduced Voice Actions, a series of spoken commands that let you control your Android phone or tablet with your voice. You can call businesses and contacts, send texts, browse the web and complete other common tasks, all just by speaking into your phone.

Today, we’re pleased to announce that users in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain can now use Voice Actions in British English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

To use Voice Actions, tap the microphone button on the Google search box on your home screen, open the Voice Search app, or press down for a few seconds on the physical search button on your phone to activate the “Speak Now” screen. You can see how it works in this video.

Speak any of these commands to perform a Voice Action on your phone:

• send text to [contact] [message]
• call [business]
• call [contact]
• go to [website]
• navigate to [location/business name]
• directions to [location/business name]
• map of [location]

And of course, you can still conduct a Google search using your voice.

Use Voice Actions to get directions, or send a text using just your voice

Voice Actions is available on phones and tablets running Android 2.2 and higher. If you don't have Voice Search on your phone yet, you can download it from Android Market - if you do have Voice Search, you can just start using Voice Actions.

We think Voice Actions helps you get things done on your phone faster and easier. Give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Posted by Bertrand Damiba, Product Manager

Posted by Steve Cheng, Group Product Manager, Mobile search team

If you're in Canada, the UK, France, or Germany, then say hello, bonjour, or Guten Tag to faster and more intuitive search on your mobile phones. Starting today, our new mobile search experience is available in these four countries, giving you access to the information you need with minimal effort and distraction.

One of the ways we do this is by bringing you the most relevant result for your query, regardless of whether it's a local result, a web result, or what have you. If you enter a search for [sunflower] ("tournesol" in French or "Sonnenblumen" in German) for example, we know you could be interested in pictures of sunflowers in addition to web results. Another new feature is the ability to remember your recent search locations, so we can provide useful local results when you search the next time -- no need to retype the location! It takes just a few clicks to get listings for nearby restaurants, weather reports, and other information tailored to where you are.

To access our new mobile search service, point your mobile browser to the following: www.google.ca (Canada), www.google.co.uk (UK), www.google.fr (France), or www.google.de (Germany).