SpeechRecognition.maxAlternatives

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  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Specifications
  4. Browser compatibility
  5. See also

This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The maxAlternatives property of the SpeechRecognition interface sets the maximum number of SpeechRecognitionAlternatives provided per SpeechRecognitionResult.

The default value is 1.

Syntax

var myMaxAlternativeNumber = mySpeechRecognition.maxAlternatives;
mySpeechRecognition.maxAlternatives = 2;

Value

A number representing the maximum returned alternatives for each result.

Examples

This code is excerpted from our Speech color changer example.

var grammar = '#JSGF V1.0; grammar colors; public <color> = aqua | azure | beige | bisque | black | blue | brown | chocolate | coral | crimson | cyan | fuchsia | ghostwhite | gold | goldenrod | gray | green | indigo | ivory | khaki | lavender | lime | linen | magenta | maroon | moccasin | navy | olive | orange | orchid | peru | pink | plum | purple | red | salmon | sienna | silver | snow | tan | teal | thistle | tomato | turquoise | violet | white | yellow ;'
var recognition = new SpeechRecognition();
var speechRecognitionList = new SpeechGrammarList();
speechRecognitionList.addFromString(grammar, 1);
recognition.grammars = speechRecognitionList;
//recognition.continuous = false;
recognition.lang = 'en-US';
recognition.interimResults = false;
recognition.maxAlternatives = 1;

...

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Speech API
The definition of 'maxAlternatives' in that specification.		 Draft  

Browser compatibility

We're converting our compatibility data into a machine-readable JSON format. This compatibility table still uses the old format, because we haven't yet converted the data it contains. Find out how you can help!

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support 33 [1] 44 (44) [2] No support No support No support
Feature Android Chrome Firefox Mobile (Gecko) Firefox OS IE Phone Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support ? (Yes)[1] ? 2.5 No support No support No support
  • [1] Speech recognition interfaces are currently prefixed on Chrome, so you'll need to prefix interface names appropriately, e.g. webkitSpeechRecognition; You'll also need to serve your code through a web server for recognition to work.
  • [2] Can be enabled via the media.webspeech.recognition.enable flag in about:config, although note that currently speech recognition won't work on Desktop Firefox — it will be properly exposed soon, once the required internal permissions are sorted out.

Firefox OS permissions

To use speech recognition in an app, you need to specify the following permissions in your manifest:

"permissions": {
  "audio-capture" : {
    "description" : "Audio capture"
  },
  "speech-recognition" : {
    "description" : "Speech recognition"
  }
}

You also need a privileged app, so you need to include this as well:

  "type": "privileged"

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

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 Contributors to this page: chrisdavidmills
 Last updated by: chrisdavidmills,