I am using a Mac mini on OS 15.7 .1 and an iPad on iOS 18.7.1
Is there a way to ensure Voice control is off when first logging on and only be coming available when selected.
I also notice that Voice control switches itself off after some short time is there any control over this?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Voice Control
Mac mini, macOS 15.7
It means the "Dictate" app is not on but VC also provides a dictation facility.
I knew nothing about VC until I saw this thread and discovered that there are over a hundred different spoken commands, the most useful being "Start Listening" and "Stop Listening" to switch on and switch off VC.
But please be aware that you are still being listened to unless you switch off listen or vc off. So if you forget to turn off the listen facility and carry on working on something else, all this time big brother could be listening to you. It is a pity that the dictating facility within voice control doesn't automatically switch off after a period of silence as it does in Dictation as I was getting used to using some of the voice control commands while dictating.
Roy Bradshaw wrote:
It is a pity that the dictating facility within voice control doesn't automatically switch off after a period of silence as it does in Dictation as I was getting used to using some of the voice control commands while dictating.
Having to manually turn Voice Control back on would make it almost useless for a lot of the people for whom it is designed - people who have limited or no ability to use their hands.
If the active period of voice control was longer than the one in dictation then you could continue working and rarely would it switch itself off but would do so when there is a long period of silence. This way when working with voice control on then you would not be listened to without you being unaware of it.
Roy Bradshaw wrote:
If the active period of voice control was longer than the one in dictation then you could continue working and rarely would it switch itself off but would do so when there is a long period of silence. This way when working with voice control on then you would not be listened to without you being unaware of it.
Again, people with limited/no mobility would have trouble with that.
If you have Voice Control on, it's listening to you. So, unless someone else turned it on, you should be aware of it. As I recall, the microphone indicator gets turned on as well.
You can let Apple know your thoughts here:
Are you asking about Voice Control or Dictation? In either case, they are both off by default.
Unfortunately on my computer Voice Control is active immediately on logging on. Is there a way of preventing this?
Please post screenshots of…
System Settings > Accessibility > Motor > Voice Control
System Settings > Keyboard > Dictation
According to your screenshot you have Voice Control enabled.
As I tried to explain previously, Voice Control has nothing to do with Dictation, which is what types what you say. Apparently I'm not very good at explaining it, so I will let others take over.
As far as I can see VC has to be On in order to dictate. If VC is Off the dictate option in Edit in Notes for example doesn't function
Note that dictation is not available when voice control is enabled.
For info. despite the notice saying Dictation is not active when Voice Control is on you can still dictate without doing anything providing you are listening
Disable Voice Control by default on Mac mini and iPad
