Google Now and pronouncing/recognising contact names

Question

One of my contacts has an unusual name which Google Now has never been able to understand.

How can I get around this (apart from asking the person to change their name)?

I'm using "send sms to [person's name]".

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 27 '13 at 22:04

11

Without changing the person's name in their contacts, adding a "phonetic" name appears to work.

add phonetic name

edited Jun 27 '13 at 22:04

Andrew Lott

answered Jul 28 '12 at 22:08

gak

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 24 '12 at 16:04

If the contact is synced to your Google account, you should be able to re-name it to anything you wish. The easiest way is to do it via the web:

Go to https://gmail.com and login with your Google account.
On the upper left click on "Gmail" and select "Contacts".
Locate and click on the contact in question.
Click on their name, make any edits necessary, and click off the field to save changes.
Wait several minutes for the changes to sync to your mobile device(s), or initiate a manual sync via Settings -> Accounts then pick your Google account and toggle the "Contacts" checkmark off and then on.

Google Now should now be able to recognize the contact by its new name.

2 Answers2