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Tutorials

Using Dictation Mode

Overview and Getting Started


If you’re using an Enabled Play controller that has on-board microphones, then you can use dictation mode to type what you say! Dictation mode can work along side voice commands so you can switch between typing and commands at the same time.

To get started, add dictation phrases to your selected controller Profile. You can add multiple dictation phrases in a profile by tapping the “Edit Dictation Phrases” button. These phrases tell your controller what to look out for at the start of your spoken phrase to know that it should type it out instead of just looking for commands.


In this example, we have “type”, “write”, “comment” and “say” as dictation phrases. That means if we say something to the controller that starts with any of these words, then it will type what we say after. For example, if we say “type the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” then the controller will type the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Or if we speak, “say hello world”, then the controller will type hello world.


With a profile setup to use dictation phrases, you can go to your device page to tell it to start and stop listening. To learn more about controlling your microphone for dictation and voice commands, check out this tutorial: Using Voice Commands



Best Practices and Tips


Here are some of our tips to get the most out of dictation mode!


  • Dictation mode works best if you use it one sentence or statement at a time rather than dictating for 30 seconds or longer.
  • You can write back to back dictated messages by pausing between statements and using one of your dictation phrases
  • Avoid using dictation phrases that are similar to other voice commands you use so you don’t mix them up
  • Each default profile comes with “type” as a dictation phrase, so you can get going right away
  • You can remove/disable dictation mode by just removing all the dictation phrases from your profile if you only want to use voice commands
  • Dictation mode will NOT work if you have “Optimistic voice commands” turned ON in your voice settings. Learn more about this setting and others in the Voice Commands tutorials



screenshot of the dictation phrases in a profile for say, type, write

Examples and Inspiration


Here are some ways that other people use dictation mode and some of our favorites!

  • Use dictation to type in your message box in games with chat
  • Create powerpoint presentations hands free by dictating your slide titles and content and using voice commands to navigate
  • Search online using your voice to find content more easily
  • Code hands free with the power of GitHub Co-Pilot and Enabled Play

Checkout this sample from our #GAAD twitter thread on using Enabled Play dictation, voice commands, and CoPilot in VS Code!

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