Using Cooking Mode

Cooking Mode is designed to make recipes easier to follow while your hands are busy. It shows larger step cards, can keep the screen awake, and gives you timers in a cooking-focused view.

Basic Cooking Mode is part of the free experience. Hands-free voice help and deeper Chef Byte cooking assistance are Pro features, with a 7-day free trial available for eligible subscribers.

Activating Cooking Mode

1. Open any recipe in your Library.
2. Tap the floating Start Cooking button (looks like a play icon or chef hat).
3. The interface transforms into large, high-contrast cards for easy reading from a distance.

Hands-free voice help

With Bytful Pro, voice help can use speech recognition to navigate steps. You do not need to say a wake word like “Hey Siri”. Just speak the command after turning voice on.

1. Tap the Voice Activation button (Flame icon) to start listening. The ring will pulse.
2. Speak one of the following commands:

Navigation Commands

• “Next Step” / “Next”: slide to the next instruction.
• “Previous” / “Go Back”: slide back to the previous instruction.
• “Repeat”: reads the current instruction aloud again (using Text-to-Speech).

Helper Commands

• “Read Ingredients”: reads the specific ingredients needed for the current step. If none are linked, it reads the full list.
• “Start Timer”: starts any timer detected in the current step (e.g., “Boil for 10 mins”).
• “Stop Timer”: stops the currently ringing timer.

Note: Voice control may keep listening while active. Toggle it off if you are having a loud conversation or want to save battery.

Smart Timers

Bytful intelligently scans every instruction for time durations.

• If a step says “Bake for 20 minutes”, you will see a Start Timer button automatically appear.
• You can have multiple timers running at once.

Ask Chef Byte

Stuck on a technique? Missing an ingredient?

1. Tap the Ask Chef button (Message icon).
2. Ask questions like:
   • “What can I substitute for buttermilk?”
   • “How do I know when the chicken is done?”
   • “Convert 200C to Fahrenheit”
3. Chef Byte answers inside the cooking screen so you can keep your place in the recipe. Some Chef Byte and hands-free features require Pro.

Landscape Mode

Rotate your phone to Landscape orientation for a dashboard view.

• Left: Ingredients list (always visible).
• Right: Current step instructions. This is useful when your phone is propped up on a counter.