XBox One Voice Commands

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If you’re a proud new owner of an XBox One this holiday season, you’re probably still learning everything about it. I was lucky enough to get mine on launch day and you can read my XBox One First Impressions article. Microsoft has been known for voice commands for years. They were one of the first to integrate it into their smartphones back in Windows Mobile and they’re the technology behind the Ford Sync system. Now, they’ve finally brought it to the XBox and it works quite well. Here are a list of voice commands you can use with your new XBox One and what each of them do.

Basic Commands

Xbox on – Wakes up Xbox One, can turn on television and cable/satellite set-top box

Xbox turn off – Puts Xbox One to sleep/off, can turn off television and cable/satellite set-top box. You’ll then have to confirm you want to turn it off with a “yes”

Xbox select – Shows voice command options for everything on the screen that is supported, highlighting relevant commands

Xbox Stop listening – Stops Kinect from listening or cancels voice commands if Kinect is triggered during casual conversation

Xbox help – Shows help menu with available options

Xbox sign in/out or Xbox sign in as

– Signs in/out an Xbox Live member

Xbox show notification – Shows on-screen notification(s)

TV Commands

If you have your cable/satellite set top box connected through your XBox One, you can use these commands–

Xbox watch TV – Launches cable or satellite TV from set-top box. We’ve used this a lot, it works really well

Xbox show guide or Xbox OneGuide – Launches OneGuide for cable or satellite TV subscribers. Less useful at the moment, as it’s not coming to the UK until 2014

Xbox volume up/down Xbox mute/unmute – Controls volume of TV set or AV receiver, if enabled in the settings

XBox One Interface

Xbox go Home or Xbox show my stuff – Returns to Home. This is the command you’ll probably use the most

Xbox Snap [app] – Launches activity in Snap mode. This is great fun and works well.

Xbox unsnap – Unsnaps activity in Snap mode

Xbox switch – Switches focus of the activities in Snap mode and Fill mode

Xbox go to [activity] – Launches specific games, TV shows, apps, notifications and sections of the dash. This is a hugely important command, you’ll use it a lot

Xbox show menu – In full screen: shows menu for whatever is on the screen. At Home: shows menu for whatever is in the current window

Xbox go back – Returns to previous screen or menu option

Game Commands

Xbox record that – Records the previous 30 seconds of gameplay, which is a great trick for catching those

Xbox start a party – Launches the Party app in Snap mode, although you can start the party at any time

Xbox use a code – Triggers Kinect code scanning for QR codes for game downloads, etc

Xbox pause/Xbox play – Pauses gameplay or resumes gameplay, meaning no more scrabbling for buttons when the phone rings

Music & Videos

Xbox play [music/video] – Launches video and music playback

Xbox play/stop/pause/fast forward/rewind/faster/slower/skip forward/skip backward/next song/previous song – Controls for media playback, works on both music and video

Skype

Xbox Skype

or Xbox call
– Launches Skype call to a person from your Skype favourites list on your Xbox One

Xbox answer/answer without video – Answers incoming Skype call

Xbox hang up – Ends Skype call

Xbox send message – Sends message to your Xbox Live friends

Browse & Search

Xbox Bing pause [item(s)] – Launches Bing, then searches for the game, movie, TV show, game add-on or app using conversational voice. We’ve found it to be a bit hit and miss

Xbox browse to [website] – Browses to a specific website when already in Internet Explorer

Scroll up/Scroll down – scrolls the page up or down

Click on [link] – clicks a link on the webpage

If you get stuck…

Just say…

Xbox – Shows menu of voice command options and begins listening for the next command