How to Control Your GoPro with Voice Commands

This guide to GoPro voice commands will help you find everything you need to know about this feature.

One of the best things about action cameras like GoPros is that they’re super compact and durable, making them perfect for spontaneous situations and outdoor activities.

But sometimes, going back to the camera to set it up may not be a viable option with everything going on around you, and that’s where the GoPro voice command feature comes in handy!

Today, I’ll walk you through all the different commands that GoPro supports and show you how to set it up.

What Are the Voice Commands That GoPro Support?

GoPro introduced voice commands as a standard feature in 2015, starting with the GoPro Hero 5, released in October 2016.

As of 2023, the GoPro has a total of 17 voice commands. These are split into 4 groups including:

• Action Commands: These are commands responsible for executing an action, like capturing or recording.
• Mode Commands: These are commands responsible for switching between different capture modes
• Power Commands: These are commands that let you turn the GoPro on or off
• Secret Commands: These are secret commands not officially announced by GoPro, but may work on several models.

One thing worth noting here is that every GoPro model has its own set of voice commands, although there are several commands available for all models.

Here’s a list of all the Go Pro models that currently support some GoPro commands:

• Hero5 Black
• Hero5 Session
• Hero
• Remo
• Max
• Fusion
• Hero6 Black
• Hero7
• Hero8 Black
• Hero9 Black
• Hero10 Black
• Hero11 Black
• Hero11 Black Mini
• Hero12 Black

A Comprehensive List of GoPro Commands and Supported Devices

Now that you know more about the GoPro commands, let’s have a brief overview of each one of them, including what they do and the devices that support those commands.

Remember that the commands list is expected to grow and support even more features as GoPro introduces newer models.

Before we start, you should know that saying GoPro before most commands is essential for the feature to work, as it alerts the Camera to receive commands.

1. GoPro Start Recording

• Available for: All GoPro devices
• What it Does: Starts recording video on the current video preset (excellent for vlogging with GoPros)

2. GoPro Stop Recording

• Available for: All GoPro devices
• What it Does: Stop the current video recording

3. GoPro HiLight

• Available for: All GoPro devices
• What it Does: Adds a HiLight tag to the video you’re currently recording

Note: GoPro added two secret commands that have the same function as this command, which are “That Was Sick!” and “Oh Sh*t!”, even without saying GoPro first.

The official website says that these commands only work on GoPro Hero 8 devices or older. However, they’re also still working on the recent models.

4. GoPro Capture

• Available for: HERO7 (White, Silver, and Black) and HERO 9/10/11/12 Black
• What it Does: Triggers the shutter button on whatever mode you’re using

5. GoPro Stop Capture

• Available for: HERO7 (White, Silver, and Black) and HERO 9/10/11/12 Black
• What it Does: Stops capturing (works only in the recording mode)

6. GoPro Take a Photo

• Available for: All GoPro devices
• What it Does: Captures a picture on the GoPro but only when the camera isn’t recording

7. GoPro Shoot Burst

• Available for: All GoPro devices (except HERO11 Black Mini)
• What it Does: Takes a series of pictures in rapid succession

8. GoPro Start Time Lapse

• Available for: All GoPro devices (except HERO11 Black Mini)
• What it Does: Begins shooting a time-lapse video (if you’re not already recording)

9. GoPro Stop Time Lapse

• Available for: All GoPro devices (except HERO11 Black Mini)
• What it Does: Stops shooting the time-lapse video

10. GoPro Photo Mode

• Available for: All GoPro devices (except HERO11 Black Mini)
• What it Does: Switches to Photo mode

11. GoPro Video Mode

• Available for: All GoPro devices (except HERO11 Black Mini)
• What it Does: Switches to Video mode

12. GoPro Time Lapse Mode

• Available for: All GoPro devices (except HERO11 Black Mini)
• What it Does: Switches to Time Lapse mode

13. GoPro Turn On

• Available for: GoPro HERO5/6/7/8 Black and Remo (removed on newer models to cut back on accidental turn-ons.
• What it Does: Turns the GoPro on

14. GoPro Turn Off

• Available for: All GoPro devices
• What it Does: Turns the GoPro off.

Keep in mind that your current firmware version might also affect the available commands, which is why you need to upgrade your GoPro’s firmware to the latest version.

Do GoPro Voice Commands Work By Default?

Although the voice command feature has been a staple feature of GoPros for several years, the voice command feature is disabled when you start using the camera for the first time.

Luckily, however, you can very easily set up the voice commands through the camera’s menu. This applies to all different GoPro models.

Keep in mind that resetting the camera to its default GoPro settings will automatically deactivate voice commands, so you’ll need to turn them back on manually.

How to Set Up GoPro Voice Commands?

GoPro makes it quite simple to enable the voice commands feature and set it up.

You can also use the GoPro Menu to check the voice commands available for your camera’s model.

Here’s a simple guide that shows you how to activate and use this feature:

1. Start by turning on your GoPro
2. Swipe down (from the top corner of the camera’s back screen), to access the GoPro Dashboard
3. Find the Voice Command icon (which looks like a person speaking, usually on the top right). The icon will have a small x beside the person to indicate that voice control is turned off.
4. After tapping the icon, the x will turn into waves to indicate that voice control is now active. The word Voice Control will also appear on the screen for most models.

You can also access the preference menu, then swipe down until you find the Voice Control tab, where you can find various additional Voice control settings.

Besides the “On Camera Voice Control” settings, you can also access the language of the voice commands from that menu, which is denoted by “Language.”

Additionally, you’ll find the “List of Commands” tab, where you can access a list of all the voice commands that your specific model can recognize.

What Languages Do GoPro Voice Commands Support?

When GoPro first released voice commands, it supported seven languages. However, it updated the list of languages to include the following languages and accents:

• English (U.S. / U.K. / Australian / India only for HERO 7 models)
• French
• German
• Italian
• Spanish (Spain and Latin America)
• Chinese (Mandarin)
• Japanese
• Portuguese (Brazil and Latin America)
• Korean
• Russian

Like other GoPro voice command features, the list of languages supported will vary from one model to another.

For example, the Remo model doesn’t support Portuguese, Korean, and Russian.

The voice commands across English are all the same. However, you should refer to the user manual to find out the exact commands in other languages.

Does Enabling GoPro Voice Commands Drain the Battery?

The short answer to this question is yes, Enabling GoPro Voice Command will drain the battery.

This is because GoPros must keep their microphone active to listen to any potential commands when they’re open.

With that being said, the impact on the battery drain is fairly small when you keep the convenience of the feature in mind.

However, If you’re battery-conscious, you might want to be careful with the feature or turn it off altogether.\

Here are some tips to extend the GoPro battery life.

How Good Are GoPros at Picking Up Voice Commands?

Although GoPros does a decent job in most cases at picking up voice commands, the system isn’t as sophisticated and advanced as you might think.

For instance, in strong wind and fairly loud surroundings, it might be difficult for the camera to isolate your voice and understand your commands.

In other words, GoPro voice commands work well, but don’t expect an Alexa or Siri-like level of reliability.

What to Do If GoPro Voice Commands Aren’t Working

Here’s what you can do If you’re trying to use your GoPro voice command feature but it’s not working properly or at all:

1. Check the Voice Command mode to make sure it’s available and activated.
2. Try to speak in a quieter environment to test if background noise is the culprit.
3. Speak in a clear voice and avoid hard-to-understand accents
4. Restart your GoPro, as this can fix camera glitches
5. Check for any firmware update, which includes bug fixes

If all else fails, your only solution before taking the GoPro to a service center is resetting the device.

You can do this by swiping down to reach the Preferences menu, then head to Reset > Factory Reset > and Reset to Factory Defaults.

Resetting will delete all content on your camera, so make sure you back up your GoPro’s SD card first.