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

I arrived digital assistant programs like Gemini and Siri, many of us have become accustomed to talking with our phones. But interacting with your Android or iOS device can go beyond interacting with AI. You can also use your voice to launch programs, fill out documents, and do anything that was possible with your fingers and toes.

Of course, traditional screen painting is often the way to go. But there may be situations—when you’re cooking, organizing, taking care of the kids, or doing anything else that keeps your hands busy—when it’s easier and more convenient to use words. The importance of voice control is obvious to those who have disabilities that prevent them from controlling a mobile phone with simple taps and swipes.

Here’s how to set up a feature on your phone, whether you’re using Android or iOS.

Voice Control on Android

To install voice control on an Android device, you need to install a free Voice Access app from the Google Play Store. You should also have Google app was installed, but this should have been installed on whatever version of Android you have.

Once you’ve set up Voice Access, you can enable this feature from Settings. On a Pixel phone, go to Accessibility > Accessibility by Voice. The exact location of that section may vary on other devices, but it will be somewhere in the Accessibility menu. For Samsung devices, for example, it is below Accessibility > Performance and dexterity > Voice Access.

Support for Voice Access on Android.

Photo: David Nield

When you set this feature up, you’ll be able to change a number of options, including whether to show a fixed button on the desktop to activate Voice Access, and whether the feature will listen to commands every time the screen is turned on (recommended for simplicity).

The same Voice Access button that you enable for that feature gives you access to several other keys. These include options for how long your phone has to wait before it stops listening to commands, how accurate your voice must be to give instructions, and how Voice Access shortcuts appear on the screen.

Voice Access can be started by saying, “Hey Google, start Voice Access,” or through any shortcut you’ve configured in the Voice Access settings (including an on-screen button and a gesture shortcut). When the process starts, you will see an icon showing four dots in the upper left corner, and then you can start talking to control your phone.