# How to Use ChatGPT Voice Mode

> ChatGPT voice now runs inside the chat, not a separate blue-orb screen. Tap the Voice icon on web, hold the mic on mobile, and when to skip it.

- Canonical: https://guides-ai.pages.dev/guides/chatgpt-voice-mode/
- Plate 07.05 · Topic: ChatGPT (https://guides-ai.pages.dev/topics/chatgpt/)
- Published: 02 Sept 2026 · Updated: 06 Sept 2026 · 3 min read
- Source site: guides-ai — https://guides-ai.pages.dev/

Voice turns ChatGPT into a spoken conversation. The important change: voice is now **integrated
into the main chat page** for most people, rather than the separate full-screen blue orb that
older guides describe. Both still exist, and you can choose.

## 1. Start it

- **Web and desktop:** click the **Voice icon on the right side of the prompt window**. The
  first time, your browser asks for microphone access.
- **iOS and Android:** **tap and hold the large microphone button** to talk in real time, and
  release to stop.

On first use you pick a voice. Change it later in settings, or from the customization menu at
the top right of voice mode.

## 2. Choose integrated or separate mode

Most iOS and Android accounts get the integrated experience by default; some still see only
separate mode while the rollout finishes. To switch either way:

```text
Settings → Voice → Separate Mode
```

What it does: toggles between voice inside the chat page and the standalone voice screen. If
your app looks nothing like a guide you're reading, this setting is usually why.

## 3. Talk over it

Interrupting works — start speaking during a reply and it stops to listen, so you needn't wait
out a paragraph you already disagree with. The conversation and its memory are the same as the
text chat, so you can switch modes mid-thread.

## When it's worth it, and when it isn't

Voice earns its place hands-busy — cooking, walking, driving as a passenger — and for
practising a language or rehearsing an argument out loud.

Skip it for anything you need to copy, edit precisely, or find again later: text is faster to
scan and trivially reusable. For code or tables, ask it to switch to text for that part. Voice
is one face of a [multimodal](/glossary/#multimodal) model — same model, different channel.

## If it fails

No icon at all usually means an unsupported browser or a blocked microphone permission; check
the browser's site settings first. If you want a transcript you can keep, record locally and
run [Whisper transcription](/guides/whisper-transcribe-audio-locally/) instead. For the reverse
direction, see [text to speech locally](/guides/text-to-speech-locally/).

Source: [ChatGPT Voice FAQ](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8400625-voice-mode-faq).