Need a Hands-Free Android Experience? Turn On Voice Access

Navigating your mobile phone typically requires a lot of hand holding along with plenty of taps, swipes, and other gestures. But for people who can’t easily use their hands due to disability or injury, or simply have their hands full, Google offers a Voice Access app.

With Voice Access, you can navigate your phone using your voice in order to open apps, make calls, browse web pages, and dictate text. If you have Android 11, Voice Access now works offline and displays labels on apps to help you better navigate your phone via voice. Here’s how to set up and use this feature.

Set Up Voice Access

To take advantage of Voice Access, you need to be running Android version 5.0 or higher and have the Google app on your device, which you can download from Google Play if necessary. You must also enable several settings before the Voice Access service will work properly.

You must also have “Ok Google” detection enabled in the Google app. Open the app, go to Settings > Voice > Voice Match, and turn on Hey Google. Next, you must have a language set up for offline speech recognition. To do this in the Google app, go to Settings > Voice > Offline Speech Recognition and make sure your native language is listed.

Once Voice Access has been downloaded, you must enable one more option before using the service. Go to Settings > Accessibility> Voice Access and turn on the switch next to Use service. A window pops up to tell you all the actions that Voice Access needs to observe to work. If you’re cool with the permissions required, tap OK.

You’re then taken to a Voice Access Tutorial page, which explains the feature and offers you a test drive to discover how it works. At the first screen, choose between two options: Listen for commands whenever my screen is on (recommended) or Stop listening after 30 seconds of inactivity. Choose the first option for now; you can always change it later. Tap Continue.

A window appears asking you to allow Voice Access to record audio. Tap Allow. The next screen covers some of the basics, instructing you on how to activate and use Voice Access. To try this out, say “Hey Google, Voice Access.” Then say “Tap continue” to go to the next screen from now on. You can also say “Show labels” to see the labels assigned to different screen elements. 

You will next be asked to allow Voice Access to make and manage phone calls and then practice entering text with your voice. Follow the steps to enter the listed words and then delete them before continuing to the next screen.

The next part of the tutorial explains how to display a grid on your screen for easier navigation. Use your voice to show the grid and then hide it.

The final screen explains how to get help if you’re not sure what you can say. The app will display different phrases you can say to perform certain actions, as well as a list of actions by categories. 

Turn Voice Access On and Off

If you have Voice Access listening in, you can turn it off by saying “stop listening." You can always reactivate Voice Assistant four different ways:

1. With "Hey Google" detection on, say "Hey Google, Voice Access."

2. Swipe down to view your notifications and tap the one that says “Voice Access Tap to Start.”

3. Tap the icon for the Voice Access app on your home screen.

4. Set up a Voice Access activation button. To do this, go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Access > Settings. In the Activation section, turn on the switch for Activation button. A blue activation button then appears on your Home screen. Tap it to turn on the feature.

How to Use Voice Access

Now that everything is set up, you can start using Voice Access for real. Activate the feature and try opening some apps by saying “Open Gmail,” “Open YouTube,” or “Open camera.” You can make a phone call by saying “Call [name of person].”

To navigate the screen with labels, say “Show Labels.” You can then select individual objects by saying a specific label, such as “Tap 5” or “Tap 8.” Place a grid on the screen by saying “Show grid,” then select an object or area on the screen by saying the associated number, as in “Tap 3” or “Tap 12.” When done, say “Hide grid.”

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If you open your browser and see a named element on a specific website or search page, you can simply tell Voice Assist to tap it by name. Otherwise, you can use labels or the grid to tap specific items. 

You can dictate the contents of an email by opening an app, such as Gmail, and saying “Tap Compose.” Say the name or email address of the recipient. Say “Tap Subject,” then dictate the subject line. Say “Tap Compose email” and dictate the email message.  When you’re ready to send it, say “Tap Send.”

Change Voice Access Settings

If you ever need help, want to replay the tutorial, or tweak an array of options, go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Access > Settings. Tap Voice Access commands to view different categories on using the feature. Tap Help and feedback to access Google’s support page on Voice Access. Tap Open tutorial to go through the tutorial again.

Under Voice command preferences, you can choose whether or not to require verbs, such as “tap” or “open” to select an onscreen object or area. You can also tell Voice Access to turn off if 30 seconds go by without any speech. 

Under Activation, you can display or hide the Activation button, tell Voice Access to listen when your phone wakes up, activate the feature when you get a phone call, keep it active during a phone call, stop Voice Access when you touch the screen, and show the keyboard when a text field is selected.

Select Set up Voice Access to set up the feature again if it’s not working properly or responding to your voice accurately. You can also establish an activation key to turn Voice Access on and off. Tap More options to see options for Voice Access feedback, labels, and grids.