Voice Command tips and tricks

The process for getting help is slightly different depending on if you have a Windows Mobile device with Pocket PC or smartphone software. An easy way to tell is to look at the Today screen and find the Windows Mobile flag. If it is in the top left, you have a Pocket PC. If it is in the bottom left, you have a smartphone.

Yes, if using the Bluetooth headset, subsequent button presses will cancel an interaction. No if using through a button on the device. You can press the Voice Command button anytime during a question to interrupt.

Try one of the following: On some devices, you can press and hold the Voice Command button to cancel the current interaction. You can respond with Cancel.

If you are having trouble with recognition, try using the longest command variation. For example, say Correct instead of Yes to complete a phone call.

No. When your voice is too loud, distorted audio is sent to Voice Command. Likewise, if you speak too close to the microphone, it will be more difficult to recognize your speech. If you speak too softly the system will not recognize your speech either. You should experiment with volume and speaking rate to obtain optimal performance.

Best results will vary for each device. For some Pocket PC devices, try adjusting the microphone gain settings in the Control panel. Try talking in different configurations, for instance, try talking to the device 2” from your ears and mouth.

Try talking to the device at a greater distance. For Bluetooth headset users, not all headsets are created equally, and some will have much better performance in noisy environments than others. Try eliminating sources of noise in your environment. Try turning off air conditioning, rolling up a window, turning down music.

Try using a Bluetooth headset with noise suppression technology.

Wait until after the microphone icon appears before speaking. If you speak before the icon appears, Voice Command will miss the beginning of your response.

Make a contact named 'voice mail' and add each of your voice mail numbers. Now you can simply say Call Voice Mail.

You can name contacts with nicknames such as Home, Mom, or Dentist. After doing this, you can call by simply saying Call Home, etc. If you have a contact that you consistently cannot access, try adding a nick name that looks the way that you might pronounce it.

You can save memory and improve recognition by synchronizing only the contacts you need.

Use Redial to call the last person you called, and Callback to call the last person who called you.

You can change a contact's first, middle or last name to make it unique.

Use the comma character (,) to insert pauses and additional touch-tone digits to play back your messages using a single command.

If you pause a long time, Voice Command will attempt to recognize the incomplete number. Speak the number at an even pace without pauses in between the numbers.

Speed up calling by including the location. For example, Call Karen Archer at home.

If you know A & B Smith, try putting '& B' into the middle name field. This way you can call either 'A Smith' or 'A & B Smith'.

Voice Command will not make any noise if the device volume is off or set to vibrate.

Yes. Voice Command cancels the reminder announcement when the reminder window disappears.

Try including meeting attendee names in the subject or location of an appointment so you'll hear them when it is announced.

Easily identify music by asking: What song is this?

Say Shuffle on to play your selection in random order.

Say Play Album by .

Yes. If you don't want to be guided through your selection, say Play < album >, Play < artist >, Play < genre >, or Play album by < artist >.

Voice Command uses the AlbumArtist property in the media file’s metadata to organize tracks by artist. This is different than the Artist property displayed by Windows Explorer and by default in Windows Media Player.

To view the AlbumArtist property in Windows Media Player, switch to Media Library, right-click on the column headings, and then select "Album Artist." You may edit this property once it is visible.

To play files that have been secured using Digital Rights Management (DRM), you must copy them to your device using Windows Media Player.

If you copy a favorite from \Windows\Favorites and paste it into \Windows\Start Menu, you can open it by saying Start < favorite >.

You can change the name of a program in File Explorer. Say Start File Explorer, browse to \Windows\Start Menu, tap and hold on the item, and then choose Rename.