VoiceXML 2.1 received “Candidate Recommendation” status from the W3C on June 13th, taking it one step closer to the level of a formal standard.
There are a number of extremely cool features in the new specification that will make building dynamic voice applications with VoiceXML simpler and more efficient. A good overview of these new features can be found in the “First Words” column authored by Rob Marchand for the VoiceXML Review.
Despite the relatively early stage in the process, most of the larger VoiceXML platform vendors now support most (if not all) the new functionality spelled out in the 2.1 specification.