By nature, the GoPro is supposed to be a very compact action camera. I have a GoPro Hero 5 Session and there are just two buttons on the whole thing, and even though there are a lot of potential settings you can tweak, it’s not always really easy to access them through the buttons, but you can do it using GoPro’s voice commands.
This is especially true if you’ve mounted the GoPro quite tightly somewhere and it is inconvenient to keep trying to access it.
The more recent GoPro models have voice commands, so you no longer need to press any buttons for most basic commands. GoPro’s Voice Commands are quite convenient to use. Let’s see which GoPros have voice control built in, and the different commands that you can use.
Check if your GoPro model has Voice Control
If your GoPro is a model older than the HERO 5, it does not have voice control. The HERO 5 and all GoPros released after it do have voice commands.
There are 12 different commands that you can issue, and the GoPro is designed to understand them in 1o different languages(wow!)
Since then, I’ve come to really appreciate the convenience of my using GoPro’s voice control. There’s no need to stop and fiddle with your GoPro anymore!
The following models will work with voice commands:
- HERO7 (White, Silver, & Black)
- HERO6 Black
- Fusion
- HERO5 Black
- HERO5 Session
- HERO (2018)
- Remo
GoPro is coming out with their new GoPro HERO8 soon, and all GoPro models now have voice commands as a standard feature. Even if your model is not on this list(meaning it is an older model), you can still control it remotely by other means, such as through the excellent GoPro app which you can download for iOS and Android.
Languages supported by the GoPro
- English (USA, UK, and Australia)
- French
- Italian
- German
- Spanish
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Korean
Please note that the last 3 languages on the list(Portuguese, Russian, and Korean) are not supported on the Remo.
How to use GoPro Voice Commands
If you’re comfortable using Alexa, OK Google, or Siri, using GoPro voice commands should feel really natural to you. Remember to speak clearly and loudly, and if there are other loud sounds muffling your voice, the camera may not be able to catch what you are saying.
First off, you’ll need to enable voice commands from the menu. How you access the menu will vary depending on the model that you are using.
You’ll also need to tell the GoPro which language to expect commands in, which you can also change from the settings menu.
You have 12 commands that the GoPro can understand:
- “GoPro Start Recording”
- “GoPro HiLight” (Adds a highlight tag while recording video)
- “GoPro Stop Recording”
- “GoPro Take a Photo”
- “GoPro Shoot Burst”
- “GoPro Start Time Lapse”
- “GoPro Stop Time Lapse”
- “GoPro Video Mode”
- “GoPro Photo Mode”
- “GoPro Time Lapse Mode”
- “GoPro Burst Mode”
- “GoPro Turn Off”
All the commands are really self-explanatory, so there is not much more that needs to be said. You can know for sure that the GoPro understood the command if you see the lights turn on/hear a beep.
Remember to say “GoPro” very clearly because that’s the keyphrase that gets the camera to listen.
If you have a HERO7, you can use “GoPro Capture” or “GoPro Stop Capture” to start and stop recording in whatever mode the camera is currently set to.
Additionally, there have been reports that there are two more commands that work:
- “Oh shit!”
- “That was sick”
Apparently, these will highlight the videos with a tag when you record. I suppose the rationale behind this was if whatever you did was so thrilling that you had to react like that, the camera should remember so that you can easily find the file!
GoPro Voice Commands not working?
Often, after a software update, the GoPro resets the default language back to English(USA). If this happens and you’re speaking in a different language or even accent, you may find that the voice commands stop working.
Simply head over to the menu and change the language back, and you should be good to go.
Related
Of course, if you don’t want to use voice commands, you can certainly use the GoPro app(my screen is broken, so I have to use the app), or you can use the remote which you have to buy separately.
