Voice recognition software seems to be the next frontier of computing. Apple (News - Alert) did it best with their launch of Siri and despite there being the usual complaints that the software has some bugs, that seems to be the gold standard for voice search these days. Now USAA is the first bank that is really trying its hand at voice recognition software when it comes to mobile searching in the form of Nina.

Nina will soon be put into action on both Android (News - Alert) and iOS mobile devices and will give the users the ability to ask what their current USAA balance is, how much they spent over the last week and when their next bill or loan payment is due. Using the USAA app, people will be able to do all of this through voice commands rather than having to browse through a maze of different pages. Nina has also been built in with a nifty little security protocol so that you aren’t accidently getting a balance when you’re just looking through the app. In order to activate Nina you must first press the speech button in the app and then say, “My voice is my password.” After activating you can then tell the app what you want it to do.

Apple and Google (News - Alert) have both been working hard at getting improved voice recognition software out to their customers. Even when Siri or Google Now are functioning exactly as they are supposed to be working, there are limitations to just how much they can do and just what applications they can access. The release of applications from third parties like Nina makes the iOS and Android voice recognition protocols all that more interesting.

The best news appears to be the Nina might actually be a slightly better version of Siri. Reports indicate that Nina understands spoken commands better than the gold standard and that is especially important when you are telling the application that you want to transfer money to another account or schedule a payment. The last thing you want to have happen is to tell the app to make a mortgage payment on the first of the month and have it somehow flub that information.

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