Voice shortcuts are AI workflow automation for your whole PC.

The MechanismHow to Trigger a Voice Shortcut

Hold your voice key — Right Alt on Windows, Fn on macOS, or your mouse scroll wheel — speak your command in natural language, then release. That's the entire interaction. No activation phrase, no command syntax, no confirmation prompt for routine tasks.

"Speak, and it's done." — three words that describe the entire voice shortcuts experience.

Unlike voice dictation software, which only transcribes what you say into text, a voice shortcut actually executes the action behind it — opening, editing, searching, or processing, depending on what you ask for.

1 · Quick LaunchOpen Any App, Website or Folder by Voice

The most immediate use of a voice shortcut is navigation. Instead of clicking through a taskbar, dock, or Start menu, you speak the name of what you want — and it opens.

Applications

• "Open Chrome"Chrome launches instantly. Works for any installed application — Photoshop, VS Code, Excel, Slack, Zoom. Owlfy recognizes common names and any custom aliases you define.
• "Open Spotify"Any app, by name. Set a custom alias (e.g., "my notes app" for Obsidian) in Settings → App Management.
• "Open Chrome and go to github.com"One command, two actions — the browser launches with the URL already loaded.

Websites and Directories

• "Open Downloads"Your Downloads folder opens. "Open my project folder" opens any custom directory alias you've configured.
• "Google search React performance tips"Browser opens with search results pre-populated, on the engine you specify.

2 · Text ProcessingEdit, Summarize and Translate Without Leaving Your Window

Select any text in any application — an email draft, a document paragraph, a code block, a chat message — hold the voice key, say what you want done. The result appears in the same window. No copy-paste. No second tool. No context switch.

This is where a voice shortcut eliminates the most repetitive friction in a knowledge worker's day, and the gap that clipboard manager software never closes: a clipboard manager can move text between apps, but it can't rewrite, summarize, or translate it. Voice shortcuts do both — instantly, in place.

Rewrite and Polish

• "Rewrite this in a professional tone"Select an overly casual message and it becomes polished prose — useful before sending emails, Slack messages, or client communications.
• "Make this more concise"Select a rambling paragraph; receive a tighter, sharper version.
• "Improve this"Owlfy infers from context what "better" means for the selected text type.

Summarize and Extract

• "List the action items"Select meeting notes; receive a clean bulleted task list with owners and dates.
• "Give me 3 headline options"Select a topic description; receive three clickable headline variants.

Code, Data and Translation

• "Explain this code"Select any code block; receive a plain-language explanation in context, or say "convert this JavaScript to Python" for voice-driven code translation.
• "Turn this into a table"Select comma-separated or prose data; receive a formatted table.
• "Translate to Spanish"Any text, to any of 100+ supported languages, delivered in the active window.

Every traditional text workflow requires leaving what you're doing — find the tool, copy, paste, wait, copy back. A voice shortcut collapses that entire loop into a single spoken sentence, in the window you're already in.

3 · Beyond TextVoice Shortcuts Also Handle Your Files

Quick Launch and Text Processing cover most of a workday, but voice shortcuts extend to files too. Select one or more images or documents, describe what you want, and Owlfy processes them locally — no upload, no separate app.

• "Compress this image"File size reduced, quality preserved — no dedicated compressor app required.
• "Convert these to PDF and merge them"Batch document conversion handled in one spoken instruction.
• "Remove the background"Transparent-background image generated instantly, processed entirely on-device.

4 · Instant SearchVoice-Driven Web Queries

A voice shortcut lets you search any engine by voice without first opening a browser. Describe what you want to find, optionally specify the engine, and results appear.

• "Search for the best mechanical keyboards under $100"Your default search engine opens with the query filled in.
• "Google search Python async best practices"Google specifically, regardless of your default browser.
• "Bing search AI news today"Bing specifically — useful when you want a different index.

In PracticeVoice Shortcuts for PC: What Changes When You Start

Here's a real 20-minute stretch of a workday once voice shortcuts are running:

Voice shortcuts don't add a new tool to your workflow. They replace the repetitive manual steps that currently sit between you and every task — with a single sentence. Treat every example in this guide as a starting voice command list: Owlfy adds new shortcuts with every release.