Speech recognition is one of the hidden gems on Windows Phone. Many of the things you do day-to-day on your phone can be accomplished using only your voice, saving you a lot of clicks and typing. Using your voice to make a phone call also works through a Bluetooth headset.

1. To open Speech, press and hold the Start button on your phone.
2. When you’ve finished talking, press Go or simply wait a couple of seconds.
3. If you want to cancel, press the Back button on your phone.

Here are some of the speech commands you can use:

Call someone from your contact list

• Call <contact name>
• Contact name is the name of someone in your contact list

Call any phone number

• Call <phone number>
• Phone number is any phone number, whether it belongs to a contact or not

Search the web

• Find <search term>
• Search for <search term>
• Search term is the term you want to search the web with

Open an application

• Open <application>
• Start <application>
• Application is the name of any application on your phone, such as Calendar.