How do I turn Cortana on or off on my Xbox One?
Cortana provides a wealth of useful capabilities on Xbox One. From inviting friends to parties to timely and unobtrusive notifications, she can do everything. Here's how to enable and disable Cortana on the Xbox One.
Note: This method works as of July 13th, 2016 on the most recent Xbox One Preview build. We'll update this article accordingly if the process changes once the Anniversary Update goes public on August 2, 2016.
Turning off Cortana will return your Xbox One to the default voice commands, which are triggered by saying "Xbox..." followed by your orders. Cortana specific commands such as "Cortana, what's the weather like?" or any of the natural language commands relating to Xbox Live will no longer work as a result of this. Additionally, you will no longer be able to use voice commands via a headset as Cortana will revert to her legacy, Kinect-only implementation.
How to turn off Cortana on the Xbox One
- Double tap the Xbox logo button on your controller. Or, if you're using a Kinect or headset microphone, just say "Hey Cortana, go to settings" and skip to step #3.
- Select Settings. It is the gear icon.
- Select All Settings.
- Select System.
- Select Cortana Settings.
Tap the A button on your controller. Cortana will snap to the right side of the screen.
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- Tap down to select the toggle in the Cortana pane.
- Tap the A button to switch Cortana off. You will be prompted that your Xbox will require a restart for this change to take effect.
- Select Reset console. Your Xbox One will reboot with the legacy voice commands enabled instead of Cortana.
How to turn on Cortana on the Xbox One
- Double tap the Xbox logo button on your controller. Or, if you're using a Kinect, just say "Xbox, go to settings" and skip to step #3.
- Select Settings. It is the gear icon.
- Select All Settings.
- Select System.
- Select Cortana Settings.
Tap the A button on your controller. You will then be guided through some telemetry agreements and prompted to reboot your Xbox.
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Cortana is an excellent addition to the Xbox One overall, but if you have no intentions of using her internet-connected features whatsoever, disabling her can offer a more responsive, more streamlined experience for utilizing basic features such as navigation, TV commands and media control.
To get the best out of Cortana and voice commands on your Kinect, make sure it's properly calibrated to receive voice commands. You can learn how to do that over here.
Do you use Cortana on Xbox One? How do you think she could be improved? Let us know in the comments below.