macOS Catalina: The Missing Manual

Chapter 7. Voice Control, Dictation & Siri

It was a popular sci-fi fantasy for decades: that someday we’d be able to talk to our computers instead of typing into them. But it’s been a while since that actually was a fantasy.

Dictation—the ability to type by speaking—has long been a Mac and iPhone feature. Siri—the virtual assistant who not only understands what you say but also executes your commands and answers your questions—came a few years later. And now Apple has taken the concept to a whole new level with its brand-new feature, Voice Control.

This chapter covers the Mac’s three speech-recognition features—Voice Control, Dictation, and Siri—as well as the Mac’s ability to talk back to you.

Voice Control

Voice Control, new in macOS Catalina, lets you operate the entire computer—every button, slider, app, and physical control—by voice. It’s absolutely amazing.

Apple’s intention, of course, was to make life easier for people who can’t use their hands and fingers to manipulate a mouse and keyboard. But when you see how fast, easy, and complete Voice Control is, you might decide it’s worth adopting no matter what your physical abilities are.

Voice Control comes turned off. To try it out, open System Preferences→Accessibility→Voice Control. Turn on Enable Voice Control (Figure 7-1). The first time you do that, the Mac takes a couple of minutes to download a language file from Apple.

Once that’s done, a floating microphone palette appears on your screen. Click its Sleep button ...