13 Simple Xbox Kinect Voice Commands

post by KM

With Xbox Kinect voice commands, users can navigate music, movies, and games through speech! Microsoft's new interface for its Xbox 360 game console allows owners with the Kinect motion controller to use direct voice commands, which incorporates Microsoft's search engine Bing, to find and interact with media intuitively.

Below we've included a list of Kinect voice commands to get Kinect owners started.


You must first begin by saying “Xbox.” Once you say the word “Xbox,” a microphone will appear on the bottom of the screen. After saying, “Xbox,” say any word or phrase which appears on the screen. This will open that content.
As an example, you can say “Xbox Go Home” to go to the Home screen.

Here are some things you can say to Kinect with voice commands:

If you want to…Go to the Home screen   -  Say..."Xbox Go Home"
If you want to…Play a disc                        -  Say..."Xbox play disc"
If you want to…Go to Social Dashboard  -  Say..."Xbox Social"
If you want to…Go to Games Dashboard  - Say..."Xbox Games"
If you want to…Search Bing                      -  Say..."Xbox Bing" (and say what you're searching for)
If you want to…Open disc tray                  -  Say..."Xbox open tray"
If you want to…Close disc tray                  -  Say..."Xbox close tray"

Use these voice commands while listening to music or watching a video:

If you want to…Fast Forward                    -  Say..."Xbox Fast Foward"
If you want to…Rewind                             -  Say..."Xbox Rewind"
If you want to…Pause                                -  Say..."Xbox Pause"
If you want to…Play music or video           - Say..."Xbox Play"
If you want to…Skip Forward                     - Say..."Xbox Next"
If you want to…Skip Back                          - Say..."Xbox Previous"

Something you cannot currently do with Kinect voice commands is turn the Xbox on or off. Also, voice commands are not available when watching videos from the My Videos or Windows Media Center areas, or when listening to songs from My Music, or when playing movies or music from a disc. Perhaps these will become available with a future update.

Share your voice command experiences in the comments section below.