How do I set up Hot Word on Android?

Hot Word lets you start dictation **hands-free** with a wake phrase — no tapping required. Useful when your phone isn't within reach. **Available on:** Android only. **Setup:** 1. Open VoicePad → Settings → **Hot Word** 2. Toggle ON 3. VoicePad downloads a ~40 MB on-device speech model (one-time, ~1 minute on normal connection) 4. Download is pause-able and cancel-able 5. Once downloaded, Hot Word is active and listening **Using Hot Word:** Just say the wake phrase. VoicePad starts recording automatically. Tap Stop or use a voice command ("Dictation stop" / "Diktat Stop") to end recording. **Language support:** - 🇬🇧 English - 🇩🇪 German The model that downloads matches your selected dictation language. Switching languages may require downloading the corresponding model. **Why Hot Word matters for voice commands:** Voice commands require Hot Word to be enabled. Both use the same on-device speech recognition. Enable Hot Word once, both features work. **Tips for accurate detection:** - Hot Word works best in **quiet environments** - Background noise, music, or other people speaking affect detection - Speak the wake phrase **clearly and at normal pace** — not slowly, not shouting - If detection is unreliable: try in a quieter environment first to confirm setup works **Troubleshooting:** - **Hot Word not triggering?** Settings → Hot Word — check that the model finished downloading (progress bar should be at 100%) - **Triggers randomly during conversation?** Background ambient speech is hitting the threshold. Disable and re-enable to restart the listener, or move to a quieter location. - **Stopped working after an update?** Sometimes Android battery optimization aggressively kills background services. Settings → Battery → VoicePad → "Don't optimize" **Privacy:** Hot Word processes audio **entirely on your device**. No audio is sent to any server. The wake phrase detection runs locally using the downloaded model. Same privacy guarantee as Whisper.