Control your iphone using your voice

Imagine you’re doing the washing up and have wet hands, or holding some tools while doing a spot of DIY – both scenarios when you want to avoid touching your phone if possible. But what if you need to check a recipe, or check guidance on the next step of your project? That’s when voice control comes in handy. It works on IOS 13 and later, which is available for the iphone 6S and more recent devices.

To turn it on, open Settings and tap Accessibility, followed by Voice Control. Tap ‘Set Up Voice Control’, followed by Continue, then Done. Your phone will now start listening to you and interpret whatever it can. There’s no need to use a trigger word like “Hey Siri”: just say something like “tap Messages”, or “press home button”. You can also ask it to do things that don’t involve an on-screen icon, like “turn up volume” or “open mail” (or any other app name).

However, one of the smartest tools is the on-screen grid. Imagine you’re trying to tap a button in an app. How would you do that with your voice? Well, by saying “turn on grid”, your iphone will overlay the screen with a grid of numbered squares (see screenshot below). Speak the number of the square in which the button appears. This zooms in on that square, which is broken down further. Again, say the number of the square in which the button appears. When you’ve zoomed far enough to have isolated the button, say “single tap”, “double tap” or “long tap” as appropriate.

To turn off Voice Control, return to its screen in the Accessibility section of Settings and tap the slider beside Voice Control so it slides to the left.