Type text with your voice

You can speak to enter text in most places that you type. You can even add common punctuation when you say 'comma', 'full stop', 'question mark', 'exclamation mark' or 'exclamation point'.

Important:

• Speech won’t work if the spoken language doesn't match the device language.
• Some voice commands aren’t yet supported in right-to-left languages.

 

Set up voice commands

1. At the bottom right, select the time or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings   Accessibility.
3. Under 'Keyboard and text input', turn on Dictation.
4. Tap or select where you want to type.
5. Select Speak .
   • You can also press Search  + d or press Launcher  + d.

 

Edit your text with voice commands

To use a command, wait for your spoken text to clear from the box, then say your command.

To edit your text, use the following commands:

Command	Description
'Type [word/phrase]'	Types the spoken text.
'Select all'	Selects everything in the text input area.
'Unselect'	Clears the selection.
'Cut'	Copies and deletes any selected text.
'Copy'	Copies selected text.
'Paste'	Pastes text from clipboard.
'Delete the previous character'	Deletes the previous character or selected text.
'Undo'	Undoes previous text-editing action.
'Redo'	Redoes previous text-editing action.
'Help'	Opens a support Help Centre article.
'New line'	Moves the cursor to a new line.
'Move to the next character'	Moves the cursor right one character.
'Move to the previous character'	Moves the cursor left one character.
'Move to the next line'	Moves the cursor down one line.
'Move to the previous line'	Moves the cursor up one line.
'Cancel'	Stops dictation and speech recognition.
'Delete the previous word'	Deletes the previous word.
'Delete the previous sentence'	Deletes the previous sentence.
'Move to the next word'	Moves the cursor right one word.
'Move to the previous word'	Moves the cursor left one word.
'Move to the next sentence'	Moves the cursor right one sentence.
'Move to the previous sentence'	Moves the cursor left one sentence.
'Delete [word/phrase]'	Deletes the specified word or phrase. This will only work if the word or phrase is before the cursor.
'Replace [word/phrase] with [word/phrase]'	Replaces the specified word or phrase. This will only work if the word or phrase is before the cursor.
'Insert [word/phrase] before [word/phrase]'	Inserts the specified word or phrase. This will only work if the word or phrase is before the cursor.
'Select from [word/phrase] to [word/phrase]'	Selects the area between two words or phrases. This will only work if the word or phrase is before the cursor.

Use new dictation commands

Important: You can only use these new commands in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

You can now use multiple commands to perform the same action and use more natural language to edit text.

For example, 'Move to the next letter' and 'Right one letter' moves the cursor to the next letter.

Command	Description
'Delete all'	Deletes all text in the text area.
'Move to the start'	Moves the cursor to the start of the text area.
'Move to the end'	Moves the cursor to the end of the text area.
'Select the previous word'	Selects the previous word.
'Select the next word'	Selects the next word.
'Select the next character'	Selects the next character.
'Select the previous character'	Selects the previous character.
'Repeat'	Repeats the previous action.