Start Android keyboard in voice recognition mode

Question

I would like to open the keyboard programmatically and have it start doing voice recognition instantly without the user pressing the mic button. I know how to implement SpeechRecognizer - that is not what I'm looking for. I want to start the keyboard VR and text go straight to an editview. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Unfortunately this is not possible, but it very much should be.

I went searching for a way to do this when I needed to use offline speech recognition as a 'hack' - but I couldn't achieve it.

I can only suggest you submit an AOSP enhancement request regarding InputType. The following addition would be helpful:

android:inputType="voice"

If you place a link to it back here, I'm sure many would star it.

EDIT - I finally got around to doing it