How do I turn Cortana on or off on my Xbox One?
Cortana provides a wealth of useful capabilities on Xbox One. From inviting friends to parties to timely and unobtrusive notifications, she can do everything. Here's how to enable and disable Cortana on the Xbox One.
Note: This method works as of July 13th, 2016 on the most recent Xbox One Preview build. We'll update this article accordingly if the process changes once the Anniversary Update goes public on August 2, 2016.
Turning off Cortana will return your Xbox One to the default voice commands, which are triggered by saying "Xbox..." followed by your orders. Cortana specific commands such as "Cortana, what's the weather like?" or any of the natural language commands relating to Xbox Live will no longer work as a result of this. Additionally, you will no longer be able to use voice commands via a headset as Cortana will revert to her legacy, Kinect-only implementation.
How to turn off Cortana on the Xbox One
- Double tap the Xbox logo button on your controller. Or, if you're using a Kinect or headset microphone, just say "Hey Cortana, go to settings" and skip to step #3.
- Select Settings. It is the gear icon.
- Select All Settings.
- Select System.
- Select Cortana Settings.
Tap the A button on your controller. Cortana will snap to the right side of the screen.
- Tap down to select the toggle in the Cortana pane.
- Tap the A button to switch Cortana off. You will be prompted that your Xbox will require a restart for this change to take effect.
- Select Reset console. Your Xbox One will reboot with the legacy voice commands enabled instead of Cortana.
How to turn on Cortana on the Xbox One
- Double tap the Xbox logo button on your controller. Or, if you're using a Kinect, just say "Xbox, go to settings" and skip to step #3.
- Select Settings. It is the gear icon.
- Select All Settings.
- Select System.
- Select Cortana Settings.
Tap the A button on your controller. You will then be guided through some telemetry agreements and prompted to reboot your Xbox.
Cortana is an excellent addition to the Xbox One overall, but if you have no intentions of using her internet-connected features whatsoever, disabling her can offer a more responsive, more streamlined experience for utilizing basic features such as navigation, TV commands and media control.
To get the best out of Cortana and voice commands on your Kinect, make sure it's properly calibrated to receive voice commands. You can learn how to do that over here.
Do you use Cortana on Xbox One? How do you think she could be improved? Let us know in the comments below.
Reader comments
How to turn Cortana on the Xbox One off and on
I do have Cortana settings on Xbox one, but it's not enabled yet in India.
Hope she gets over to you guys soon!
Lol, Cortana is sad
I'm looking forward to my Xbox and my phone both responding to "Hey Cortana" and then getting into a fight: "He meant me." "No, he meant ME!"
Lol I wish
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I have a 950 XL, Surface Book, Surface Pro 3 and Xbox One set up in the office with Hey Cortana. It's not fun!
Haha don't crush any hearts Jez.
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Some form of handoff is needed (urgently) - I and friends are also suffering from the multiple Cortana issues. Surface Pro, Phone, Xbox and HTPC (all Windows 10) typically in the same room when I'm playing Xbox... luckily the dated phone has no active listening, so it's only the HTPC and Surface that get annoyed at me.
I think I read on WC a little while ago about a patent application from MS about that kind of handoff. Of course that means a lot of work still needed...
Yeah, hand offs have been announced as 'in development' several times, but this would be even more complex (for Cortana) with the MS account having to know what the actual 'active' device is at the time Cortana is initiated (e.g. each device calls home to indicate active input, e.g. Touch, Xbox Controller, Keyb/mouse). Possible and needed.
All that in your office?? I want to work wherever this is, are they hiring? lol
My bedroom, lol
Lol. Hmmmm, come to think of it, I prefer my current job...
Try an tiny house with 6 windows devices, it's comicly frustrating.
I'm pretty sure that's how her rampancy began.
My phone and surface book already got into a 30 minute "I didn't understand that" fight.
Hell, I cant even turn Cortana ON not being a damn American..... its about friggin time Microsoft dropped all their useless geblocking
They aren't geoblocking Cortana. They need more time to get her to work better with other languages. Do you want a retarded Cortana that launches Halo every time you want her to turn your volume up?
What would make me turn off Cortana, I really really love Cortana
Thank you, I will be turning Cortana off when I get home. I already have access to her functions on my L950 and my SP3. While I like the possibilities on X1, I do not like the regular "Warming up" before being available for a command and the necessity for an internet connection for Cortana to interpret commands is just time consuming - when playing a game, I often get her remarking that she "can't find the bandwidth." The older voice commands, just worked (when it head correctly) - no unnecessary time spent warming up or interpreting. Optimally, I would want a both the old voice commands and Cortana to work cooperatively - voice commands for basic functions, Cortana for search and advanced function. But for now, simply turning off Cortana will save a good amount of headache.
I didn't need this article. I already know how to turn her ON/OFF. Do the dishes and a load of laundry to turn her ON. Ask her to fetch me a beer to turn her OFF. :-o
Could we have an article on some of the Xbox commands please!
Coming soon.
Man, does anyone else get the craziest fonts on the restart notification?
I usually dance naked in front of the Kinect to turn on Cortana.
My 950XL, SP3 and desktop sit on the other side of the room to my Xbox and TV setup, so far so good, the kinect picks up on Hey Cortana and she turns the TV over without the others chiming in, but at the moment it doesn't work so well if I am sitting at my desk, the kinect mic still picks it up even if the other devices don't................
Does any know how to get Cortana to select things in netflix and other apps?