I've spent years getting frustrated by voice assistants. You know the drill: You get cut off mid-thought or it completely bungles your request and you end up just grabbing your phone to type it anyway. So when I went to try ChatGPT's Voice Mode, my expectations were, frankly, on the floor.
I have never been so happy to be completely wrong.
This isn't just a voice-to-text feature; it feels like having a real, fluid conversation. It intelligently waits for you to finish your thought, understands your natural pauses, and doesn't get thrown off by "ums" or stammers. I can use it while I'm cooking or driving, speaking like a normal human without carefully planning my every word. It's not just faster than typing -- it's a genuinely more intuitive and useful way to interact with AI. If you've been ignoring it, you're missing out.
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ChatGPT, from OpenAI, isn't the only chatbot going hands-free. Google's Gemini Live offers the same "talk over me, and I'll keep up" vibe. Anthropic's Claude has a beta version of its voice mode on its mobile apps, complete with on-screen bullet points as it speaks, and Perplexity's iOS and Android assistant also answers spoken questions and launches apps like OpenTable or Uber on command.
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But even with everyone racing to master real-time AI conversation, ChatGPT remains my go-to. Whatever your chatbot of choice, take a break from the typing and try out the voice option. It's far more useful than you think.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
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What exactly is voice mode?
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