Is it possible to use a verbal code word or a button combination for activating a function in an iPhone App?
We are currently talking to a security and healt care company who asked for an app which allows to activate some functions inside an app with a verbal code word or a button combination.
Like that you are in danger and just push a button combination 3 times or for an old person, who is alone at home and collapsed on the floor and just shout out a verbal code word.
After that some functions should be called inside the App (like a kind of status update, GPS data should be sent) and the security company should be called and the employee of the company should have the possibility to listen whats happening there.
Would this be possible with a usual iPhone or a jailbreaked one?
It is not possible to perform voice activation of apps. The only voice activation is for the built-in commands (play music, dial number, call xxx). These all require an interaction first of all though (long-press of the home key) and can’t be always listening.
The situation in your question would require your app to be running (ie not in the background) and you would have to write your own voice-recognition system. Likewise for the “push a button combination”, you have no control over the buttons and cannot reassign them. The only buttons you can control are the ones that your app displays on the screen