How to use iPhone Voice Control to take selfies and more

Ever wondered how to take your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch experience to another level? If so, you’ll be thrilled to know about Apple’s Voice Control feature. This innovation lets you navigate and interact with your iPhone using your voice to perform actions like tap, swipe, type, and much more. Imagine enjoying the convenience of controlling your device hands-free – all you need is your voice.

Before we dive into the ins and outs of Voice Control, it’s crucial to understand that the feature requires iOS 13 or later, or iPadOS. You also need to download a file before you can use Voice Control, but don’t worry, once this download is complete, you won’t need a Wi-Fi connection to use the feature. Just a tip: it’s recommended to connect to Wi-Fi before you turn on Voice Control for the first time.

So, if you’ve been wondering how to make the most out of your Apple device, take Voice Control for a spin. It’s intuitive, user-friendly, and, best of all, it can make navigating your device as simple as having a conversation.

How to turn on Voice Control

To enable the Voice Control feature on your iPhone simply follow the steps below :

Go to Settings and select Accessibility
Select Voice Control, then choose Set up Voice Control

Once you set up Voice Control, a download will begin in the background. When it’s complete, a microphone icon will appear in your device’s status bar, indicating that Voice Control is listening or not.

Using Voice Control

When Voice Control is on, you can just speak the commands like you would perform an action by touch. To see a list of available commands, just say “Show me what to say.” For a full list of commands, just follow these easy steps:

Go to Settings and select Accessibility
Select Voice Control, then Customize Commands

How to take selfies using Voice Control

Watch this video on YouTube.

To take a selfie using voice control, just follow these simple steps:

Ensure Voice Control is On: Before you start, make sure that Voice Control is turned on in your device’s accessibility settings. If it’s not, head over to your settings and turn it on.
Open the Camera Application: To begin the process, use the command “Open camera.” This voice command will launch the camera application on your device.
View Button Names: If you’re unfamiliar with the layout of the camera application, you can use the command “Show names.” This feature will display the names of the buttons on your screen, helping you understand what each button does.
Switch to the Front Camera: To switch to the front camera (which is typically used for taking selfies), use the command “Tap camera chooser.” This will switch the view from the back camera to the front camera.
Capture Your Selfie: Finally, to capture your selfie, just say “Tap take picture.” Your device will then take the picture.

Additional handy commands include the following:

To turn Voice Control on or off after the initial setup, use “Hey Siri,” the Accessibility Shortcut, or go to Settings, select Accessibility, then select Voice Control.
To lock your device, say “Lock screen.”
To wake your device, say “Hey Siri, turn on Voice Control.”
To activate or deactivate listening, say “Go to sleep” or “Wake up.”

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Interacting with Your Screen

Interacting with your screen using Voice Control is a breeze. You can speak an action like “Tap,” then say the name of the item. For example, if you want to access the Accessibility settings, just say, “Tap Accessibility.”

If you’re unsure of an item’s name, say, “Show names” to display an overlay with the item names. If an item doesn’t have a name, or if you would prefer to use numbers, say, “Show Numbers” to display numeric tags for each item on your screen.

For interactions needing more precision or spatial referencing, use the command “Show grid” to display a numbered grid overlay. Speaking a number on the grid will enlarge that area, making it easier for you to select an item.
You can also:

Hide overlays by saying “Hide [names, numbers, grid].”
Repeat actions by saying “Repeat that.” You can specify how many times to repeat an action. For instance, say, “Swipe right. Repeat that three times.”
Return to a previous screen or menu by saying, “Go back.”

How to turn off iPhone Voice Control

to disable the iPhone voice recognition system and go back to the old-fashioned way of navigation just follow the steps below to turn off iPhone Voice Control.

Access Settings: First, go to your iPhone’s home screen and tap on the ‘Settings’ icon.
Navigate to Accessibility: Scroll down and tap on ‘Accessibility’. This is where you can access all the accessibility features on your iPhone, including Voice Control.
Select Voice Control: Within the Accessibility menu, you’ll find ‘Voice Control’. Tap on it.
Turn Off Voice Control: You will see a switch next to ‘Voice Control’. If the switch is green, that means Voice Control is enabled. To turn it off, tap the switch. It should turn from green to gray, indicating that Voice Control is now off.

Voice Control is a powerful feature that can dramatically enhance your device interaction. Whether you’re looking to use your device hands-free, need assistance due to accessibility reasons, or just want to try something new, Voice Control is a fantastic tool to add to your technology toolkit.

Tips & tricks

Remember, your device is designed to make your life easier and more enjoyable, and Voice Control is just one of the many features that help accomplish this. To make your Voice Control experience more personalized, you can adjust several settings under Voice Control, such as:

Language: Voice Control uses the primary language that you have set on your device.
Customize Commands: This allows you to view the full list of available commands, turn commands off, or create customized commands.
Vocabulary: This lets you teach Voice Control new words.
Show Confirmation: This displays a visual confirmation at the top of the screen when a command is recognized
Play Sound: This option plays a sound effect when a command is recognized.
Show Hints: This feature displays dynamic suggestions for what you can say, which appear automatically after similar but non-matching instructions are spoken.
Overlay: This setting allows you to set a continuous onscreen overlay with numbers, names, or the grid.
Attention Aware: For devices with Face ID, this setting enables you to turn listening on or off based on whether or not you’re looking at the screen. This is particularly helpful when using multiple devices with Voice Control.

For more information on using your iPhone and troubleshooting any issues you may have with setting up voice recognition or similar features. Jump over to the official Apple support website or book an appointment with an Apple Genius Bar representative to talk you through a solution.

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Filed Under: Apple, Guides

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