How to Control Everything on Your Phone With Your Voice (iOS and Android)

iOS and Android)">

With digital assistant apps like Gemini and Siri becoming ubiquitous, many of us are comfortable talking to our phones. But voice interaction goes far beyond chatting with AI. You can use your voice to launch apps, fill out text fields, and perform tasks that previously required tedious tapping and swiping.

The traditional touchscreen input will often be the way to go, but there are scenarios where voice input is more convenient. When you're cooking, repairing something, looking after children, or engaging in any activity that keeps your hands busy, voice control can be a game-changer. This is especially true for individuals with impairments that make it difficult to interact with a touchscreen phone using traditional methods.

To set up voice control on an Android device, start by installing the free Voice Access app from the Google Play Store. You'll also need to have the Google app installed, which should come preinstalled on most Android handsets. Once installed, enable Voice Access from Settings.

On a Pixel phone, navigate to Accessibility > Voice Access. The exact location may vary on other handsets, but it will be in the Accessibility menus. For Samsung devices, go to Accessibility > Interaction and dexterity > Voice Access.

During setup, you can tweak options such as displaying a persistent button onscreen for launching Voice Access and whether the feature is always listening for commands when the screen is on. The Voice Access screen also provides access to additional key settings, including options for how long your phone waits before stopping listening for commands, how precise your phrasing needs to be, and how Voice Access shortcuts are displayed on screen. You can launch Voice Access by saying, “Hey Google, start Voice Access,” or via configured shortcuts, including an on-screen button and a gesture shortcut.

When Voice Access is active, you'll see an icon with four dots in the top left corner, and you can start speaking to control your phone.