Apple’s latest iterations of operating systems (e.g. iOS 13, iPadOS 13 and macOS Catalina) offer a new Accessibility feature known as Voice Control. Voice Control lets you control your entire device using only your voice. It’s a great feature for those who might have difficultly operating their device using traditional input methods. When using Voice Control, everything on screen can be controlled using your voice.
The basic aim of Voice Control is to allow you to easily control all aspects of your device using your voice. Voice Control allows you to navigate around through the use of labels that are placed next to clickable items or grids. This system of labels and grids lets users launch apps, select additional app options, make calls, send messages and more. Voice Control can also be used in addition to Siri, Apple’s Voice Assistant, which is very useful itself but does not offer the full device control that Voice Control does.
To enable Voice Control on your iPhone/iPad:
Open the Settings app and navigate to “Accessibility -> Voice Control.”
Tap on “Set Up Voice Control.”
While setting up Voice Control, you’ll be presented with a list of commands you can use to run Voice Control.
The basic commands include “Open Control Centre,” “Go Home,” “Show Grid,” etc. Using these commands, you can navigate through your entire device using your voice.
Whenever Voice Control is enabled, you’ll see a small blue mic icon in the notification bar of your device:
- If you’d like to create a custom command or view the full list of commands you can use, simply select “Customize Commands” in the Voice Control menu. To create a new command, you’ll have to specify the phrase to be spoken by the user to enable the command, and the resulting action or app you want the command to open. Once done, simply save, and you will be able to use the newly added command.
Using the “Customize Commands” menu, you can also choose to disable specific commands if you don’t want to use them. Another option is to enable “Confirmation Required” for a command. This isn’t enabled by default, but if you do choose to enable it, whenever you speak a command, you’ll need to confirm it by tapping on your screen or saying “Tap Execute” for the command to be executed. It’s pretty neat but may be a nuisance to some.
To navigate your device, you can choose to enable Grids to show different grids on the device. Then, by speaking the grid number you want to zoom in on, you can get your device to focus on that part. This will, in turn, help you further navigate or zoom in to a specific part of the screen. To show Grids, simply say “Show Grid.” Once the grids are enabled on screen, simply mention the grid number you want to zoom in on.
You can also choose to add words to the device’s vocabulary list for custom commands. To do this, in the Voice Control section, click on Vocabulary.
Here, click on the Plus icon on the top-
right corner to add a new word you’d like to use in Voice Control. Once added, you can choose to create a new command with the new word.
Using the tips mentioned above, you can easily enable and use Voice Control on your iOS device. Have you found Voice Control effective and useful for yourself or a friend/relative? Let us know in the Comments section below.
Shujaa Imran is MakeTechEasier’s resident Mac tutorial writer. He’s currently training to follow his other passion become a commercial pilot. You can check his content out on Youtube
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