How to change the keyboard shortcut you hold to talk to Moe
Jude Mercer, SEO and Content, Memoe — 16 October 2026
Right Option is where Moe starts: hold it from any app, say what you need, let go, and Moe answers out loud. If right Option already does something else on your Mac, or your keyboard doesn't have one, you don't have to live with that — Settings › Voice › Hold a key to talk lets you pick a different key, and the change works straight away.
The choices
Three alternatives to right Option, all in the same setting:
- Right Command — the plainest swap if Option is bound to something else.
- Right Control — only on some keyboards, so check yours has one before picking it.
- fn / 🌐 — works only if macOS isn't already using that key for something of its own. Set System Settings › Keyboard › Press 🌐 key to Do Nothing first, or macOS will act on the press too.
Whichever you pick, every place Moe names the key — the "Say hello" step, the island, the Accessibility permission warning, the meeting hint — switches to naming that one instead. The key needs Accessibility turned on; until it is, Moe says so wherever you'd see it, each with a Fix button, and the warning clears the moment you turn it on.
If you'd rather hold nothing at all
Two ways in need nothing held down. ⌃⌥Space starts and stops a turn with a tap and needs no permission at all. If something else already owns that combination, Shortcut to ask under More in Settings › Voice offers ⌥Space, ⌘⌥Space and ⌃Space instead. A new shortcut takes effect once Moe restarts.
There's also "Hey Moe" — a wake word you can turn on in Settings › Voice, off by default. It's a separate choice from which key you hold, not a replacement for picking one.
Why this is worth getting right once
A key held as part of a real keyboard shortcut doesn't start Moe by mistake: hold fn and press Delete, or right Command and Tab, and the press is dropped — nothing is recorded, no picture taken, and a reply Moe was in the middle of just carries on. That's true for whichever key you choose, so picking right Command because it's already free on your Mac doesn't cost you anything your shortcuts were using it for.
What it needs
Moe needs an Apple silicon Mac on macOS 15 or later. The key you hold is the same one used for everything else you'd ask Moe — see talking to Moe from any app for the other three ways in. Full detail on every way to start a turn is in the docs, Talking to Moe — this page describes the mechanism, not a version number.