Full List of iPhone 3GS Voice Commands

When I first got my iPhone 3GS, it was a little bit of a mystery to me, all the voice commands that were available. I knew “call”, and “play music”. Some other random ones would swipe across the screen, but still, I didn’t have a complete list, and I wanted one; It took me a little more effort than I wanted it to, so I thought I’d post it here for future use, so it could be easily found.

To activate the voice control screen, simply hold your home button for 3 seconds or tap the middle button on your headphones. Whether it’s on the standby screen ‘locked’, or in use in any app that you’re currently running, it’ll pop up (like you see on the right). Once you hear a tone, the phone is ready to accept commands; be sure to wait for it, or it’ll only listen to a part of what you’ve said, and may misinterpret your command.

Telephone Commands
“Call Marc Cizravi” will look up the name ‘Marc Cizravi’ and dial the number you have listed on that contact profile. The phone will prompt you back by speaking “Calling Marc Cizravi”. Remember that pronunciation is a little robotic. I know how to pronounce my name, but the iPhone mangles it when repeats it back to me – if you sometimes have trouble calling someone with a strange name, try listening to the pronunciation that the phone uses, and mimic that. If you happen to have multiple numbers for ‘Marc Cizravi’, it will tell you that. “Marc Cizravi – Home? Mobile? School?” to which you’ll respond (after the tone) “Home” – and it will repeat back to you “Calling Marc Cizravi, mobile“.

“Dial 416 111 1111” will dial that phone number, make sure you’re speaking loudly and clearly, and not too quickly, and remember to wait for the tone before starting your command!

Music Commands
Follow the same instructions, waiting for the tone, and use any of the following commands that relate to your music:

• “Play Music” or “Play” – start playing your music, from the last song played, or beginning of your library if you have synced your phone recently.
• “Play Songs By Blink 182” or “Play Artist Coldplay” will start playing music by Blink 182 or Coldplay.
• “Play Album Take Off Your Pants And Jacket” will start playing songs from the Album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, by Blink 182.
• “Play Playlist My Top Rated” will start playing music from your ‘My Top Rated’ playlist.
• “Play More Songs Like This“, “Play More Like This” and “Genius” will activate the Genius playlist function from the song that’s currently playing.
• “Next“, “Previous“, “Pause“, “Shuffle, “Next Song“, “Previous Song“, “Pause Music” “Shuffle Music, are also all functioning commands. What’s funny (and don’t ask me how I found out) but “Boobs” is also a command, but only when music is playing… try it!
• “Who Sings This Song?“, “What Song Is This?“, “What’s Playing?” will have your iPhone speak the artist’s name and song’s title of what’s currently playing back to you.

If your iPhone ever gets part-way to a command you’re trying to execute, and for some reason it’s made a mistake, you can always say “no“, “wrong“, “never-mind“, “not that one“, “nope“, “cancel” will stop the voice control all together. Even if you were just to activate it by accident, you could just say “no” and it would just revert to the activities before it was accidentally activated.

Enjoy a little demo from me below, and if you want you can also have a look at the iPhone voice-control demonstration video on Apple’s website.