When the Online speech recognition setting is turned off, speech services that don’t rely on the cloud and only use device-based recognition-like the Narrator app or the Windows Speech Recognition app-will still work, and Microsoft won’t collect any voice data. However, the Microsoft cloud-based speech recognition technologies provide more accurate recognition than the device-based speech recognition.

You can use device-based speech recognition without sending your voice data to Microsoft. For more info, see How does Microsoft protect my privacy while improving its speech recognition technology? Microsoft will not store, sample, or listen to your voice recordings without your permission. When you use cloud-based speech recognition technologies from Microsoft-whether enabled by the Online speech recognition setting or while you interact with HoloLens or voice typing-Microsoft collects and uses your voice recordings to provide the service by creating a text transcription of the spoken words in the voice data. Learn more about speech in Windows Mixed Reality You can turn off these settings at any time by going to Start > Settings > Privacy > Speech on your HoloLens or Start > Settings > Mixed Reality > Audio and speech if using Mixed Reality on a Windows device. With both settings turned on, and while your headset is turned on, the device will always be listening to your voice input and will send your voice data to Microsoft cloud-based speech recognition technologies. Both device-based speech recognition and online speech recognition settings will be turned on. Turning on speech while setting up a HoloLens device or installing Windows Mixed Reality allows you to use your voice for commands, dictation, and app interactions. Additionally, in Windows 10, the Online speech recognition setting makes it possible to use dictation within Windows. Turning on the Online speech recognition setting lets apps use Microsoft cloud-based speech recognition. Microsoft provides both a device-based speech recognition feature and cloud-based (online) speech recognition technologies. To learn more about these features, read the following sections.

That’s why we give you control over your privacy settings for online speech recognition and inking and typing personalization features in Windows.

Windows 11 voice recorder