Teleprompter voice commands: control the script hands-free while you record

Teleprompter voice commands let you move the script without touching the phone: say “go back” and it returns to the previous line, “pause” and it holds, “start over” and it goes back to the top. Orate’s Follow my voice has seven commands, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian, and they work while you record. Below is every phrase, how a command is told apart from a line of your script that uses the same words, and how to keep commands out of the finished video.

We make Orate. The phrase lists here are copied from the table both of its apps are tested against, so they are exactly what the app listens for.

Why hands-free matters in the middle of a take

When the phone is the camera, every touch is in the shot. Reach for the screen to scroll back and the frame shakes, your eyes leave the lens, and the take has a hand in it. With the phone on a tripod across the room, you cannot reach it at all without walking out of frame.

A voice-following prompter already takes care of pace: it moves as you read and holds when you stop. Commands cover what pace cannot: the line you fluffed and want again, the paragraph you decided to skip, the moment you need to gather yourself, and the take you want to begin again without stopping the recording. How the following itself works is in how a voice-activated teleprompter works.

The seven commands, in English

Each command has a few phrasings, so you can use whichever comes naturally. Case and punctuation do not matter.

The same commands in five more languages

Commands exist in six languages. These are the phrases for the other five, exactly as the app matches them; accents and capitals are ignored, so “Nächste Zeile” and “nächste zeile” are the same thing.

In any other language the phone recognises on device, Follow my voice still follows your reading. It just has no commands.

Why “stop” is not a command

“Stop” is deliberately left out, in every language. Said to a camera app, it means stop recording, and having the text pause instead would surprise you at the worst moment. If you want the script to hold, say “pause”, “hold on” or “wait”. If you want the recording to end, use the shutter button.

How a command is told apart from your script

Scripts are full of words like “go back”, “continue” and “wait”. A prompter that jumped every time you read one would be worse than no commands at all. So an utterance only counts as a command when both of these hold:

1. The whole utterance, between two pauses, is one phrase from the list. “Go back” on its own is a command. “Okay, go back” is not.
2. None of its words moved the script on. If your script says “let’s go back to 2019”, those words match the script where you are, so they are read, not obeyed.

The practical upshot: you never have to word a script around the commands, and a command only needs a breath of silence either side to be heard as one.

What happens after a command

A command moves the script and then waits at the new place until you read. The text stays still; the first words you read there carry on from that point. So after “go back”, take a breath, then read the line again from its start. Nothing scrolls away while you collect yourself.

• Pause holds the text until you say “resume” or one of its phrasings. Reading three words of the script where it stopped also resumes it, so you can simply carry on.
• Start over goes to the top of the script without stopping the recording, which is the quickest way to scrap a false start and go again in the same take.
• The paragraph commands are for bigger moves: skipping a section you have decided to drop, or going back to redo a whole paragraph.

Commands are in the recording, so plan the cut

The commands are heard by the take’s own microphone, so they end up in the video. There is no way around that for a prompter that listens while it records, and Orate says so the first time you use one, along with where the trim tool is. Trim them out before you save, or cut them in your editor.

The cut is easy if you leave room for it. Finish or abandon the sentence, pause, say the command, pause again, then read the line from its beginning. The two pauses are your cut points, and restarting the whole sentence rather than picking up mid-phrase gives you a clean join. A false start followed by “start over” is the easiest of all: everything before the good read comes off the front.

Tips for commands that work first time

• Pause before and after. A command is one whole utterance between two pauses. Run it into the end of a sentence and it is just more words.
• Say it clearly, at a normal volume. The recogniser that hears the command is the one following your reading, so say it the way you read the script.
• Say only the phrase. No “okay” or “sorry” around it. Save the apology for after the take.
• Pick one phrasing per command and stick to it. They all work, but a phrase you always use is one you will not fumble under pressure.
• Rehearse once with commands. A run in the prompter without recording is the quickest way to learn how much pause the app needs from you.

Where Orate’s commands work

The commands are part of Follow my voice, on iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later and on Android 12 or later, in video, audio-only and prompter-only modes. Recognition happens on the phone and nothing you say is sent anywhere. Follow my voice is part of Orate Pro and included in the free trial; the prompter and recording are free. The feature page is voice controlled teleprompter, and whether it keeps listening while an Android phone records is covered in a voice teleprompter for Android that keeps listening while you record.

Other apps have commands too: Teleprompter.com says its VoiceGlide takes voice commands, as of November 2026. We have not compared phrase lists. If you would rather not use your voice at all, a well-chosen fixed speed still works; see teleprompter scroll speed, and for setting up the phone, the distance and the first take, how to use a teleprompter on your phone.

Questions people ask

What voice commands does a teleprompter understand?

It depends on the app. Orate's Follow my voice has seven: go back, go forward, previous paragraph, next paragraph, pause, resume and start over, each with a few alternative phrasings, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian.

Can I control a teleprompter with my voice while recording?

In Orate, yes: the commands work during a take, on iPhone and on Android. They are heard by the same microphone as the recording, so they end up in the video and need trimming or cutting out.

Why doesn't saying stop pause the teleprompter?

In Orate, stop is deliberately not a command in any language. Said to a camera app it means stop recording, and pausing the text instead would surprise you. Say pause, hold on or wait instead.

Will the teleprompter obey a command that is part of my script?

No. An utterance counts as a command only when the whole of it, between two pauses, is one phrase from the list, and none of its words moved the script on. A line like "let's go back to 2019" is read, not obeyed.

Do teleprompter voice commands work in other languages?

In Orate, commands exist in six languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Italian. In any other language the phone recognises on device, Follow my voice still follows your reading; it just has no commands.