Microsoft has added another entry to the long list of deprecated Windows features. Today, the company announced that it is no longer developing Windows speech recognition capabilities. Replaced by VoiceAccess on Windows1123H2 and Windows1122H2.
The company writes on its website: Windows Speech Recognition is deprecated and is no longer in development. This feature will be replaced by VoiceAccess, which is available on Windows 1122H2 or later devices.
A few days ago, Microsoft highlighted the accessibility features it is adding in 2023, including voice access. Other such features include live subtitles, narration voice, and narration extensions. You can learn about these features in our dedicated article.
Regarding the feature, Microsoft writes: Voice Access in Windows 11 is a new experience that enables everyone, including people with mobility issues, to use voice to control their computer and compose text. For example, you can use your voice to open and switch apps, browse the web, and read and compose emails. Voice Access uses speech recognition capabilities on modern devices to accurately recognize speech and does not require an internet connection to use.
For those who don't know much yet, Microsoft introduced speech recognition as a separate application in Windows Vista back in 2006 in an effort to make the operating system easier to use. Unfortunately, Microsoft did not foresee threat actors abusing this feature.
Back in 2016, Microsoft achieved several impressive milestones in speech recognition. In September of that year, Microsoft announced that it had achieved the lowest word error rate, but a year later, in 2017, IBM beat it again, and the gap was not small. Then, in October 2016, Microsoft announced that it had also achieved human-like speech recognition.
There is also a famous scene about this function. The following is a video of the car accident scene: