Microsoft Turbocharges Voice Capabilities in Windows 11
With many eyes across the tech industry keeping a close watch on Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system releases, the software giant is hard at work bringing voice features to more PCs.
One of the latest steps in that effort is the move to bring the artificial intelligence-powered Voice Clarity feature to Windows 11-based PCs. Previously, the feature, which suppresses background noise to improve speech recognition accuracy, was only available on Microsoft Surface tablets and laptops. Microsoft introduced Voice Clarity in 2022.
Microsoft is also ending support for its Vista-era Speech Recognition tool and replacing it with Voice Access in Windows 11. Voice Access supports speech-to-text capabilities and limited window management, even without an active Internet connection.
The change will affect users of the Windows 10 and 11 operating systems. Though Microsoft has not yet announced what it plans to do for Windows 10 users, the company could either migrate Voice Access to Windows 10 or keep Speech Recognition on Windows 10 but stop updating it.
“Voice Access in Windows 11 is a new experience that enables everyone, including people with mobility disabilities, to control their PC and author text using their voice. For example, you can open and switch between apps, browse the web, and read and author emails using your voice. Voice Access uses modern, on-device speech recognition to accurately recognize speech and works without an internet connection,” the software giant wrote on its website.
Microsoft introduced Speech Recognition in 2006 as an accessibility feature in Windows Vista and has continued to support it in subsequent Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 operating system releases.
Microsoft is also adding several new features to Voice Access, including on-device operability, multi-display support, custom commands, voice shortcuts, and support for additional languages and dialects.
Voice Access will prompt users to download a speech model for on-device speech recognition the first time they turn the feature on.
With the voice shortcuts feature, users can now create custom commands that string together multiple tasks into a single shortcut. They can create commands that map to a single action, such as opening a specific web page, or a series of actions performed in sequence, using either voice or any other input modality.
Other languages supported in this latest Windows 11 version include German, European and Canadian French, and European and Mexican Spanish. And users can also now speak commands into Voice Access with either the basic alphabet or the NATO phonetic alphabet, meaning that saying “B” or “Bravo” would both be valid for inputs.
Voice Access features also now work on multiple displays, including number and grid overlays that were previously unavailable. The grid overlay feature lets users interact not only with the screens currently in use but also to quickly switch to another display. They can also use the drag-and-drop feature to move files, apps, and documents from one display to another. And an accelerated command mouse grid allows the user to move the mouse to a specific point on a specific display.
In this latest version of Windows 11, Microsoft is also working to cram in its new ChatGPT-powered Bing Chat service and Copilot while shutting down its Cortana automated virtual assistant.
Microsoft has been scaling back support for Cortana for years. The company has gradually been removing third-party app integrations and stopped supporting the virtual assistant, first launched more than a decade ago with the ill-fated Windows Phone platform, on most mobile devices in 2021.
Microsoft brought Cortana to the PC environment in 2015 as part of a Windows 10 update, but by 2019 it was already being deprioritized in subsequent Windows 10 builds.
Microsoft is urging people who rely on Cortana in Windows to switch to Copilot and Voice Access. Cortana will still be included in Microsoft’s Outlook email platform and Microsoft’s Teams collaboration and communications platforms, though those versions of Cortana are also likely to disappear soon, experts predict.