Android Voice Actions Not Working Properly

I got my new LG Optimus One the other day. This is my first Android phone, and I must say, even though I bought a cheaper introductory phone, I am impressed!
I'll post a full review of the phone after I've gotten to know it better, but for now I had to post on a problem I was having, and have finally solved.

The problem was with the Voice Actions option the phone comes with. Here is the video describing what you should be able to do:



Looks cool, eh? Ya, I thought so too! Trouble was, when I hit the voice command button next to the google search window and said "Send Text To John Henry How's it going?" it would leave the "to:" field in the text window blank and put "John Henry How's it going?" into the message field. No matter what variations I tried to speak, this happened continually. After much internet scouring, I found a forum message somewhere with the answer.

For some reason, Google will not properly sync your phone contacts with your actual google account contacts. Its your actual Google account contact list it checks against when you speak commands to it. Here is what you need to do on your phone:

1. Open your contacts. I just clicked the icon right from the home screen.

2. Click the menu button, choose the "more" option, and select "import/export".

3. Choose "Export to SD card".

4. Hit the menu button again and select "Select All". This will put a checkmark beside all your contacts.

5. Select "Done".

6. Click Ok. It should save the file as 00001.vcf by default.

You have now made a back up on your SD card of all your contacts. Plug your phone into your computer, and enter into USB mode. Find the 00001.vcf file and copy it over to the computer. I always copy stuff like this to the desktop, it's easy to find. If you're having trouble getting your phone connected properly to your computer, see my previous post HERE.

7. Log into your Google account (on your computer, not your phone) and click on the "contacts" option in the top left.

8. Click on "Import Contacts" in the middle left of the screen, and select your 00001.vcf file here.

Once your contacts are imported, unplug your phone (safely! Use the remove USB option on the taskbar by your clock) and you're done!

It seems to work best for me if I say "Send Text To" then the name of my contact, followed by the message. I hope this helps, and keep checking back for my full review on the LG Optimus One.