Use Speech in Windows Mixed Reality

Use your voice to get around Windows Mixed Reality faster—take a quick photo, open an app, even teleport without a controller. And for an easy way to type, try dictation mode on the mixed reality keyboard.

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Notes:

When Speech is turned on, Windows Mixed Reality is always listening. When you’re connected to the Internet, we send everything you say to the cloud so Microsoft speech services can recognize even more of your commands.
Speech commands are not supported in all languages. Learn more
Bluetooth headsets and speakers are not supported in Windows Mixed Reality.

See it, say it

In the Windows Mixed Reality home, if you see a word, you can often use it as a speech command. For instance, just say the name of a button to select it. If you don’t see a name, point your motion controller at the button (or, if you’re using an Xbox gamepad, rest your gaze on it) to find out what to say.

General speech commands

Use these throughout Windows Mixed Reality to get around faster. Some commands use the gaze cursor, which you’ll bring up by saying “select.”

To do this	Say this
Select	Say “select” to bring up the gaze cursor. Then, turn your head to position the cursor on the thing you want to select, and say “select” again.
Open the Start menu	Go to Start
Leave an immersive app	Say "Go to Start" to bring up the quick actions menu, then say "Mixed reality home."
Turn on/off Flashlight	"Flashlight on" / "Flashlight off"
Teleport	Turn your head toward the place you want to go, and then say “teleport.” (For more precise targeting, first say “select” to bring up the gaze cursor, then say “teleport.”)
Turn to the left or right	Turn left / turn right
Turn 180 degrees	Turn around
Move forward	Move forward / walk forward
Back up	Move back / walk back
Move to the left	Move left / walk left
Move to the right	Move right / walk right

3D object commands

Gaze at a 3D object, hologram, or app window to use these commands.

To do this	Say this
Make it bigger	Bigger
Make it smaller	Smaller
Turn it to face you	Face me
Get it ready to move—it’ll follow your gaze	Move this
Place it when you’re done moving it	Place

App bar commands

Gaze at an app window or a 3D object to use these commands.

To do this	Say this
Close an apps or 3D object	Close
Adjust something (resize or move)	Adjust
Stop adjusting	Done
Hide the app bar on a 3D object	Hide menu
Show the app bar on a 3D object	Show menu
Go back to the previous screen or page in an app that has a Go back button	Go back
Use your Xbox controller as a gamepad, rather than as a mixed reality controller, in the app you’re looking at	Use as gamepad
Use your Xbox controller as a mixed reality controller (when you’ve been using it as a gamepad)	Use with gaze

Start menu commands

Gaze at the Start menu to use these commands.

To do this	Say this
Go to the All Apps list	All apps
Move up or down on Start or All apps	Page up/down
Go back to Start menu from All apps	Go back
Take a photo	Camera
Take a video	Video
Show the headset view in Mixed Reality Portal on your desktop	Preview
Open the volume control on Start	Change volume
Mute	Mute
Unmute	Unmute
Close the Start menu	Close or cancel

Hey Cortana commands

Say "Hey Cortana,” then use one of the following commands:

To do this	Say this
Find out what you can say to Cortana	What can I say?
Increase/decrease volume	Turn the volume up/down
Mute/unmute	Mute/unmute
Start an app	Launch <app name>
Open a website in Microsoft Edge	Open <website name> (for example, “open bing.com”)
Take a photo	Take picture
Start recording a video	Start recording
Stop recording a video	Stop recording
Show the time	What time is it?
Open the Start menu	Open Start menu
Set a timer	Set a timer
Set a reminder	Set a reminder

Notes:

Cortana is not available in all regions and languages. Learn more.
If Cortana isn't responding to "Hey Cortana," select Settings > Privacy > Speech and make Online speech recognition is turned on.
If you turn Cortana off, "Hey Cortana" voice commands won't be available, but you'll still be able to use other commands (like "select" and "teleport")

Keyboard dictation

Switch to dictation mode any time the keyboard is active for an easy way to type. Select microphone on the keyboard—or just say “start dictating”—to get started.

Note

The mixed reality keyboard is only available in English, but you can use dictation in any of the supported Windows Mixed Reality languages.

Keyboard dictation commands

To do this

Say this

Close the keyboard

Start dictation

Start dictating

Stop dictation

Stop dictating

Delete what you’ve just dictated

Delete that

Select everything in the dictation box

Select all

Punctuation

You’ll need to say the names of the punctuation you want to use. For instance, you might say "Hey comma what are you up to question mark."

Here are the punctuation keywords you can use:

Period, comma, question mark, exclamation point/exclamation mark
New line/new paragraph
Semicolon, colon
Open quote(s), close quote(s)
Hashtag, smiley/smiley face, frowny, winky
Dollar, percent

Sometimes it's helpful to spell out things like email addresses. For instance, to dictate example@outlook.com, you'd say "E X A M P L E at outlook dot com."

To stop dictating, select Done.