Use Voice Control on your Mac

With Voice Control, you can navigate and interact with your Mac using only your voice instead of a traditional input device.

How to turn on Voice Control

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings (or System Preferences).

2. Click Accessibility.

3. In Accessibility settings, click Voice Control.

4. Turn on Voice Control. If you’re turning on Voice Control for the first time, your Mac may complete a one-time download from Apple.* Voice Control will become available after the download.

When Voice Control is turned on:

• In macOS Sonoma or later, a Voice Control menu appears in the menu bar. From this menu, you can stop or start listening, change the language and microphone, and open Voice Control settings. To stop or start listening, you can also say “Go to sleep” or “Wake up”.

• In macOS Ventura or earlier, a microphone icon will appear on the screen. It represents the mic selected in Voice Control settings. To stop listening, click Sleep under the microphone. To start listening, click “Wake up”. You can also say “Go to sleep” or “Wake up”.

How to use Voice Control

Get to know Voice Control by reviewing the list of voice commands available to you: say “Show commands”. The list varies based on context, and you may discover variations not listed.

If you’re using macOS Sonoma or later, you can learn and practise Voice Control commands using an interactive guide:

1. Choose Apple menu  > System Settings.

2. Click Accessibility in the sidebar, then click Voice Control on the right.

3. Click the Open Tutorial (or Open Guide) button.

To make it easier to know whether Voice Control has heard your phrase as a command, you can turn on “Play sound when command is recognised” in Voice Control settings.

Basic navigation

Voice Control recognises the names of many apps, labels, controls and other onscreen items, so you can navigate by combining those names with certain commands. Here are some examples:

• Open Pages: “Open Pages”. Then create a new document: “Click New Document”. Then choose one of the letter templates: “Click Letter. Click Classic Letter.” Then save your document: “Save document”.

• Start a new message in Mail: “Click New Message”. Then address it: “John Appleseed”.

• Restart your Mac: “Click Apple menu. Click Restart” (or use the number overlay and say “Click 8”).

You can also create your own voice commands.

Number and name overlays

Use number and name overlays to quickly interact with parts of the screen that Voice Control recognises as being clickable, such as menus, tickboxes and buttons.

• To turn on item numbers, say “Show numbers”. Then just say the number to click it. To turn off item numbers, say “Hide numbers”.

• To turn on item names, say “Show names”. To click a name, say “Click” and the name. To turn off item names, say “Hide names”. This feature requires macOS Sonoma or later.

These overlays make it easy to interact with complex interfaces, such as web pages. For example, in your web browser you could say “Search for Apple Stores near me”. Then use the number overlay to choose one of the results: “Show numbers. Click 64.” (If the name of the link is unique, you may also be able to click it without overlays by saying “Click” and the name of the link.)

Voice Control automatically shows numbers in menus and wherever you need to distinguish between items that have the same name.

Grid overlays

Use grid overlays to interact with parts of the screen that don’t have a control, or that Voice Control doesn’t recognise as clickable.

Say “Show grid” to show a numbered grid on your screen or “Show window grid” to limit the grid to the active window. Say a grid number to subdivide that area of the grid and repeat as needed to continue refining your selection.

To click the item behind a grid number, say “Click” and the number. Or say “Zoom in” and the number to zoom in on that area of the grid, then hide the grid automatically. You can also use grid numbers to drag a selected item from one area of the grid to another: “Drag 3 to 14”.

To hide grid numbers, say “Hide numbers”. To hide both numbers and grid, say “Hide grid”.

Dictation

When the cursor is in a document, email message, text message or other text field, you can dictate continuously. Dictation converts your spoken words into text.

• To enter a punctuation mark, symbol or emoji, just say its name, such as “Question mark”, “Per cent sign” or “Happy emoji”. These may vary by language or dialect.

• To move around and select text, you can use commands such as “Move up two sentences”, “Move forwards one paragraph”, “Select previous word” or “Select next paragraph”.

• To format text, try “Bold that” or “Capitalise that”, for example. Say “Numeral” to format your next phrase as a number.

• To delete text, you can choose from many delete commands. For example, say “Delete that” and Voice Control will know to delete what you’ve just typed. Or say “Delete all” to delete everything and start again.

• To dictate character by character, say “Spelling Mode”, then speak each character. This feature requires macOS Ventura or later and isn’t available in all languages.

Voice Control understands contextual cues, so you can transition between text dictation and commands seamlessly. For example, to dictate and then send a birthday greeting in Messages, you could say “Happy Birthday. Click Send.” Or to replace a phrase, say “Replace I’m almost there with I’ve just arrived”.

To switch between modes manually, say:

• “Command Mode”

• “Dictation Mode”

• “Spelling Mode”

You can also create your own vocabulary for use with dictation.

Create your own voice commands

1. Open Voice Control settings, such as by saying “Open Voice Control settings” or “Open Voice Control preferences”.

2. Click Commands or say “Click Commands”. The complete list of all commands will open.

3. To add a new command, click the add button (+) or say “Click add”. Then configure these options to define the command:

   • When I say: enter the word or phrase that you want to say to perform the action.

   • While using: choose whether your Mac only performs the action when you’re using a particular app.

   • Perform: Choose the action to perform. You can open a Finder item, open a URL, paste text, paste data from the clipboard, press a keyboard shortcut, select a menu item or run an Automator workflow.

4. You can also select a command to find out whether other phrases work with that command. For example, “Undo that” works with several phrases, including “Undo this” and “Scratch that”.

To add a new command quickly, you can say “Make this speakable”. Voice Control will help you configure the new command based on the context. For example, if you say this command while a menu item is selected, Voice Control will help you make a command for choosing that menu item.

Starting with the latest version of macOS Monterey, you can also import or export voice commands.

Create your own dictation vocabulary

1. Open Voice Control settings, such as by saying “Open Voice Control settings” or “Open Voice Control preferences”.

2. Click Vocabulary, or say “Click Vocabulary”.

3. Click the add button (+), or say “Click add”.

4. Type a new word or phrase as you want it to be entered when spoken.

Starting with the latest version of macOS Monterey, you can also import or export vocabulary.

Find out more

• For the best performance when using Voice Control with a Mac laptop and an external display, keep your laptop lid open, use an external mic or use a display with a built-in mic.

• If you’re using a Mac mini, Mac Studio or Mac Pro, you must use an external mic or display with a built-in mic.

• All audio processing for Voice Control happens on your device, so your personal data is always kept private.

• Use Voice Control on your iPhone or iPod touch.

• Find out more about accessibility features in Apple products.