GoPro users have a few options available when it comes to controlling the tiny action camera without fiddling with its buttons or touchscreen.
You can purchase a GoPro remote, use the Capture app on your phone, or starting with the Hero5 ($190 at Amazon) series of cameras, you can use your voice.
Voice commands on the new cameras aren't enabled out of the box. To turn the feature on, you can swipe down from the main screen on the back of the Hero5 Black and tap on the voice command icon. Or Session owners can use the Settings section of the Capture to toggle the feature on or off.
With voice commands enabled, you can bark out commands whenever the camera is powered on, even if it's in standby. Every command you give starts with "GoPro."
Here's a complete list of commands you can give:
- GoPro, start recording
- GoPro, stop recording
- GoPro, take a photo
- GoPro, shoot burst
- GoPro, time-lapse mode
- GoPro, start time lapse
- GoPro, stop time lapse
- GoPro, video mode
- GoPro, photo mode
- GoPro, burst mode
- GoPro, turn off
- GoPro, HiLight
The HiLight command will mark the video at that exact moment and tell the Quik editing app to use the section of footage just before the highlight when creating a video. Not included in the official list is a command of "that was sick!" which does the same thing as the HiLight command.
If you forget the commands, you can always find it directly on the Hero5 Black under Preferences > List of commands. In Preferences you can also set your preferred language for voice commands, choosing from English (US), English (UK), English (Australian), German, French, Italian, Spanish (EU), Spanish (N.A.), Chinese and Japanese.