We had the following comment attached to a previous post:

Re Android: Google seem to have quietly removed the speech.recognition package from the Android API. I say quietly: the removal is noted in the API Diff specification for M3-RC37a to M5-RC14, released 15th Feb, but I haven’t been able to find any more public announcements – for example, it wasn’t mentioned in the m5-rc-14 release announcement.

Google have also not responded to a couple of queries about android.speech.recognition on the android-developers mailing list.

I was also very interested when Android was launched last November, especially with the involvement of Nuance, and the prospect of an accessible speech tech API. However, the speech tech parts of the Android API were never made available and now they’ve been removed. It’ll be interesting to see what the iPhone has to offer.

I had Mike Thompson, vice president and general manager of Nuance Mobile on the line yesterday so I asked him if indeed the speech recognition package had been dropped.

The Nuance response, from Mike Thompson:

No that’s not true. The outlook is just as positive as it has been all along. We’re actively participating. The exact release cycle of their SDK, what’s included and what’s not, why things get included and why things don’t, I don’t know all the details of that but things are very positive on that front and marching in the same strategic direction they were.

If there’s more to report, I will.