During the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro unveiling, Samsung spent a lot of time discussing the earbuds' AI features, but there was one non-AI feature the company didn't mention that deserves its own spotlight.
It's called Voice Control, and it allows users to control the earbuds using voice commands without needing a wake-up command. There's no need to say “Hey Bixby” or anything like that. Instead, you give basic commands to the Buds 3 Pro, which will take in the information and make necessary adjustments.
It appears the feature was discovered by user Stephancevallos905 on the Samsung subreddit. According to his comment, simply saying “Volume Up” or “Volume Down” is enough to control the volume level. No additional action is required.
Industry expert Mishaal Rahman later appeared on the Reddit thread to explain how voice control works after conducting some field testing. He claims the Buds 3 Pro were able to pick up his commands both inside a pharmacy and on a noisy subway without him having to shout into their microphones.
Command and control
Rahman says that voice control is not enabled by default. Galaxy Buds 3 Pro owners need to manually activate it from the Galaxy Wearable app. Upon activation, you will be provided with a list of the exact commands you need to speak in order to register the action. For example, you will need to say “Stop music” to pause playback, as “Pause,” “Pause music,” or any similar variation of the original will not work.
The funny thing is that other people can manipulate the earbuds. Android Authority says that since the earbuds don't have a wake word or are not direction-trained, a friend can prank you and turn up the volume while you're wearing them. They just have to say the right command near the earbuds.
Voice control is a very useful feature “in terms of convenience.” However, you will need to be aware of your surroundings so that the Galaxy Buds don’t pick up other people’s cues. We’ve reached out to Samsung to ask about the issue and whether they plan to roll out a software patch to fix it. We’ll update this story if we hear back.
Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best headphones for 2024.
