Speech technology company Nuance Communications announced its acquisition of peer Vlingo, stating that the companies will “combine their deep innovation and R&D expertise to deliver next-generation natural language interfaces across numerous markets and industries.”

Vlingo describes its app as a “virtual assistant,” which is available in versions for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Mobile. Nuance’s technology powers a number of apps for third parties as well as being embedded in products from a number of vendors, and the company has also offered some of its own apps using the Dragon brand.

Nuance said the companies will “combine their deep innovation and R&D expertise to deliver next-generation natural language interfaces across numerous markets and industries.”

Vlingo previously said it used speech recognition systems developed by AT&T and IBM to build its products, with the IBM system acquired by Nuance in 2009 – making Vlingo a customer. At this time the company said that “since Nuance acquired the IBM speech assets the Vlingo/AT&T system is really one of the few remaining alternatives to Nuance in the market.”

In October, Vlingo said that it added 2.5 million users in the third quarter of 2011, with 550 million voice actions made during the period. The company made its app free on the iOS platform in order to compete with Apple’s Siri (while also supporting older iOS devices), with the company claiming that 4 million of its 10 million users are from the Apple platform.

Earlier this year Vlingo claimed a patent victory in a patent trial with Nuance.

Mike Thompson, SVP and general manager of Nuance Mobile, said: “Inspired by the introduction of services such as Apple’s Siri and our own Dragon Go!, virtually every mobile and consumer electronics company on the planet is looking for ways to integrate natural, conversational voice interactions into their mobile products, applications, and services. By acquiring Vlingo, we are able to accelerate the pace of innovation to meet this demand.”