You accomplish a lot these days with your phone, computer, and home electronics by simply talking to them. While voice dial is something that’s been around for a while, voice control is becoming much more common and the feature is improving every day, especially on smartphones like the iPhone 7. The iPhone assistant, called Siri, is one of the more capable voice-activated elements found in popular operating systems, and she can help you to do a lot on your phone without even touching a button.
But your iPhone can still perform actions based on your spoken commands even if you never activated or set up Siri, or if you are actively avoiding her use. This is because of a feature that the iPhone calls “Voice Control” which can be used in tandem with Siri, or as its own separate function altogether.
If Voice Control is enabled on your iPhone 7 then you can either activate it at any time, or you may need to hold down the Home button for it to be active. The nature of its use will depend on your device’s current setting.
While Voice Control can be an awesome convenience feature that improves your iPhone experience, you may have trouble with it understanding your commands, or it may be activating on its own or when you don’t want it to. Luckily you have the option of turning to iff entirely if it’s just not something that you wish to use.
How to Turn Off iPhone 7 Voice Control
- Tap Settings.
- Choose the Accessibility menu.
- Touch Voice Control.
- Turn off Voice Control.
- Tap Accessibility at top-left.
- Choose Home button.
- Select the Off option under Press and Hold to Speak.
Find out more about turning off voice control on an iPhone with the steps below. We also show these steps with pictures if you would prefer to follow along with that additional information.
How to Disable Voice Control on an iPhone 7 (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on an iPhone 7 in iOS 14.7.1. Other iPhone models also have this feature, and it is also found on a number of newer versions of iOS..
Step 1: Touch the Settings icon.
If you don’t see it on your Home screen then you can swipe down on the Home screen to open Spotlight Search, then type “settings” into the search field to open Settings instead.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap the Accessibility menu option.
Step 3: Choose the Voice Control option in the Physical and Motor section.
Step 4: Tap the Voice Control button to turn it off, then select the Accessibility option at the top-left to return to the previous menu.
Step 5: Select the Home Button option.
On iPhone models that don’t have a Home button this menu option is replaced with a “Side Button” option.
Step 6: Choose the Off option in the Press and Hold to Speak section on this screen.
Now you have disabled the Voice Control option on your iPhone 7. You will no longer be able to use it by talking to your iPhone, nor will you be able to activate it accidentally by holding the Home button for too long.
Voice Control and Siri are similar, but they are distinct features on the iPhone. If Siri is still enabled on your iPhone 7 and you would like to disable it, then you can do so by turning off the Siri setting on your iPhone at Settings > Siri and Search > and changing the settings found on that menu.
You can always turn Voice Control or Siri back on later by going back to their respective menus and re-enabling them.
More Information on How to Turn Off Voice Control on iPhone 7
You will notice a lot of other settings on the Accessibility menu that you might want to adjust. While many of these features are meant to assist people with physical disabilities, they can improve your experience with the device even if you don’t require them.
While Voice Control is technically disabled in the tutorial above once you have turned the option off, we go the extra steps of disabling it for the Home button, too. When the Voice Control feature isn’t tied to the Home button you are able to use it for Siri instead if you prefer. The “Off” setting is chosen above because we want to prevent any voice feature from being activated via the Home button, but you could always select the “Siri” option instead.
The relationship between Siri and iPhone Voice Control can be confusing because they serve such similar purposes. I have always found Siri to be the more useful of the options if I am going to use voice control on my iPhone, though. But your own preferences will dictate which option you elect to enable or disable.
Siri can be turned off by selecting the Siri & Search menu item from the Settings app and disabling the Siri settings like:
- Listen for “Hey Siri” (you will need to say “Hey Siri” first before she will respond to voice commands)
- Press Home button for Siri
- Allow Siri When Locked (this lets you activate Siri and speak words on the lock screen to performed actions)
A pop up will appear at the bottom of the screen when you have turned off these features. This pop-up wants to confirm that you wish to disable Siri and that she will need to relearn a bunch of information if you activate her again in the future.
The iPhone keyboard includes a microphone button that you can tap to dictate text messages, emails, and more. I am constantly tapping that button by accident and I have rarely ever meant to use it. Plus if you don’t notice it fast enough you might wind up with spoken content being added to your message, which you then need to delete.
You can go to Settings > General > Keyboards > Enable Dictation to remove the microphone from the bottom-right of the keyboard and prevent the mishaps that are so common around that button. This will stop you from being able to speak auto text directly from the keyboard, but you can always have Siri create a text for you.
As we mentioned above, the Home button Voice Control feature is only available on iPhone models like the iPhone 7 which actually have a Home button. On newer iPhone models without a Home button, such as the iPhone 12, the Voice Control feature is accessed by holding the Side button instead. You will need to update the steps above accordingly (by replacing “Home button” with “Side button”) to change how you activate it.
What Causes the Classic Voice Control Feature to Activate if I Have My Headphones Connected to My iPhone?
If you like to use Voice Control on your iPhone 7 but are curious about why it seems to be launching on its own all the time, then, unfortunately, it might be because of a physical problem with your iPhone or one of its components.
It’s difficult to find whether it’s a button or a port that could be causing Voice Control to launch on its own, as there is no simple procedure or diagnostic process that allows you to see where the malfunction lies. This problem is not easy to fix with simple steps or even some hardware tinkering, so you may need to bring the device to an Apple Store or a certified Apple technician to resolve the issue.
Unfortunately disabling voice control from the Settings menu is probably the most effective course of action if you are having trouble with this feature.
Matthew Burleigh has been a freelance writer since the early 2000s. You can find his writing all over the Web, where his content has collectively been read millions of times.
Matthew received his Master’s degree in Computer Science, then spent over a decade as an IT consultant for small businesses before focusing on writing and website creation.
The topics he covers for MasterYourTech.com include iPhones, Microsoft Office, and Google Apps.
You can read his full bio here.