Difference between Android Speech to Text API (Recognizer Intent) and Google Cloud Speech API?

Question

So i'm looking into building a speech to text app for fun. I did some research and found an inbuilt Speech to Text API using RecognizerIntent that is free, but also found that google is now offerieng a cloud speech API that the charge for.

My question is, what is the difference between them, and If i use the inbuilt RecognizerIntent, is it free?

Answer 1

For the Google Cloud Speech API, refer to the following link:

https://cloud.google.com/speech/. Here are the highlights:

1. It supports 80 different languages.
2. It can recognize audio uploaded in the request.
3. It returns text results in real-time.
4. It is accurate in noisy environments.
5. It works with apps across any device and platform.
6. It is not free. Refer to the following link for pricing:

https://cloud.google.com/speech/pricing

For the Android Speech-to-Text API (Recognizer Intent), refer to the following link:

http://www.androidhive.info/2014/07/android-speech-to-text-tutorial/. Here are the highlights:

1. Need to pass local language to convert speech to text.
2. Not all devices support offline speech input.
3. You cannot pass an audio file to be recognized.
4. The intent returns an array of strings which match to out input. We can consider first one as the most accurate.
5. It only works with Android phones.
6. It is free.