Using voice control

Hi garyp127

I have been monitoring Apples voice control development for a while. When I first tried it was not very accurate and there were a lot of things that did not seem to work as they should. From what you said, this seems to have been your experience too. There does appear to me to have been steady improvement although I do think you need up to date hardware and latest OS to get the best from it. It will be interesting to hear other peoples experience.

I have just loaded Big Sur and first impressions are positive although I need more time see how it performs. When I have had more time using it I will try and post an update.

Since Nuance dropped Dragon for Mac I think it is essential Voice Control steps up - it is the only option available for the mac - and for those who rely on it like yourself it is essential it continues to improve. There is no other choice!

btw the built in head tracker in Big Sur looks good too. Not sure if this is something you would use alongside voice control, but it looks like it could be a very useful tool for those with paralysis.

I tried using Keyboard commands as a way to cause mouse movement. I used Mouse Keys - the feature that converts the keyboard into buttons that move the mouse - and then used an Applescript to press the keyboard keys, which I then linked to a voice command. I can get the mouse to move a specified distance, but cannot set the mouse moving and then stop it with a "Stop mouse" command. Looking around the web it does not appear this is possible with Applescript. An experienced programmer, which I am not, might be able to come up with something, but so far I have not found anything that works.

I have used Applescript to create my own very simple but useful tools and linked them to voice commands and most of these worked OK.

Not sure I have any magic that makes Applescripts triggered by Voice Control. work. I just set them up in the voice control section - see screenshot. I did notice that if you make changes to the script you need to "reattach" the script to the voice command - when running it does not seem to reference the file in the location you have stored it.

I have noticed that some things just don't work - e.g. Some keyboard commands that work using the keyboard keys do not run when used in a voice command. There seems no reason why this happens for some keys and not others.

halpy wrote: "I have posted these issues many times on the forum and have found Apple to be unresponsive to my input."

Also: "To provide feedback about an accessibility feature on an Apple product, email the Accessibility team: accessibility@apple.com." [Source: Apple]

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I was exactly in your situation. And I was thrilled when Apple released Voice Control as part of the operating system of Mack OS Catalina. So I promptly upgraded to Catalina starting with 15.1. I was using a mid 2015 15 inch MacBook Pro. Although there were fewer of glitches and crashes compared to Dragon, a major problem seem to be let the more I used the navigation features of" Show Numbers" and" Show Grid" the slower my Computer became. I had to restart my computer almost every hour so the voice control would become responses again. And finally when I upgraded to Catalina 15.4, Voice Control became so unresponsive that I couldn't use it anymore. Being paralyzed, like you, this was a big problem. Even though my computer was otherwise totally functional, I decided upgrading my hardware to a newer a MacBook Pro. I bought the new 16 inch MacBook Pro with the 2.3 GHz 8 Core I9 CPU. Even after upgrading Catalina to 15.7 on this new machine, all that to was bring me to the level of proficiency of my old Mac using Catalina 15.3. I felt like I wasted my money. Beyond that, dictation does not work with microsoft Excel and there are no continuous motion commands for cursor movements. I have posted these issues many times on the forum and have found Apple to be unresponsive to my input. Maybe the new M1 machines will be an improvement.

halpy wrote: "I have posted these issues many times on the forum and have found Apple to be unresponsive to my input."

Apple is unresponsive here because this is a user-to-user Community. And Apple won't respond at the page below either, but they will read your input:

Feedback - macOS - Apple

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It is very disappointing to hear of these negative experience with voice control on Mac, especially as there are no other options available. I hope things improve. I would take every opportunity you can to feedback to Apple otherwise they will never hear just how important this functionality is, and that despite developments it is still not hitting the user experience levels we all expect.

I tend to use the internal microphone (I have a mac book pro) on the basis that Mac microphones tend to be "good" quality. I also have logitech C920 webcam which has a built in microphone. I don't tend to use this for voice control, but it works well for calls etc.

I don't have any evidence of what works best. Generally I would not use a 3.5mm jack device, using bluetooth or USB in preference (as you are). Any "good quality" microphone should be OK - the problem is specifying good quality.

If there are any audio engineers out there that could specify what a good quality mic would be, that would be helpful!