A mobile device includes a plurality of physical buttons for providing programmable control inputs to the mobile device. A processor within the mobile device is programmed with instructions to cause the mobile device to respond to a first input via a first of the plurality of physical buttons by activating voice recognition by the mobile device and providing an indication on a status bar on a screen of the mobile device. The mobile device accepts voice inputs and processes the voice inputs locally and via interactions with a remote server to provide contextualized information within an application executing on the mobile device.