SpeechRecognition: start event

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  1. Examples
  2. Specifications
  3. Browser compatibility
  4. See also

This is an experimental technology
Check the Browser compatibility table carefully before using this in production.

The start event of the Web Speech API SpeechRecognition object is fired when the speech recognition service has begun listening to incoming audio with intent to recognize grammars associated with the current SpeechRecognition.

Bubbles No
Cancelable No
Interface Event
Event handler property onstart

Examples

You can use the start event in an addEventListener method:

var recognition = new webkitSpeechRecognition() || new SpeechRecognition();

recognition.addEventListener('start', function() { 
  console.log('Speech recognition service has started');
});

Or use the onstart event handler property:

recognition.onstart = function() { 
  console.log('Speech recognition service has started'); 
}

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
Web Speech API
The definition of 'speech recognition events' in that specification.		 Draft  

Browser compatibility

We're converting our compatibility data into a machine-readable JSON format. This compatibility table still uses the old format, because we haven't yet converted the data it contains. Find out how you can help!
Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari (WebKit)
Basic support 33 [1] 44 (44) [2] No support No support No support
Feature Android Chrome Firefox Mobile (Gecko) Firefox OS IE Phone Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support ? (Yes)[1] ? 2.5 No support No support No support
  • [1] Speech recognition interfaces are currently prefixed on Chrome, so you'll need to prefix interface names appropriately, e.g. webkitSpeechRecognition; You'll also need to serve your code through a web server for recognition to work.
  • [2] Can be enabled via the media.webspeech.recognition.enable flag in about:config, although note that currently speech recognition won't work on Desktop Firefox — it will be properly exposed soon, once the required internal permissions are sorted out.

See also

Document Tags and Contributors

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Contributors to this page: fscholz, chrisdavidmills
Last updated by: fscholz,