TablefulGuide
How to cook hands-free on iPhone
Cooking from a phone means wiping flour off a screen that has gone to sleep, on a recipe that scrolled somewhere else. Cooking mode shows one step, tells you what that step needs, and moves when you tell it to.
What you need
- A recipe with a method: imported, scanned or typed
- A phone propped where you can see it
- No AI use: cooking mode is free on every plan
Step by step
1. Tap Start cooking
It is on the recipe. The screen changes to one step at a time and stays awake.
2. Look at the ingredients for this step
Not the whole list. The two things this step needs, in the amounts this step needs them, which is the difference between following a recipe and re-reading it.
3. Turn on Hands-free
The step is read out to you and the next one follows when this one is done. Your hands stay in the bowl. There is a voice control on screen rather than buried in a menu, so you can change it mid-cook.
4. Start the timers from the steps
A step that says twelve minutes offers the timer. Hands-free waits for the timer to finish before moving on, which is the behaviour you want when the pan is the thing setting the pace.
5. Cook with the phone locked
A Live Activity puts the current step and the running timer on the Lock Screen, so a glance is enough and the screen does not have to stay on the counter unlocked.
6. Replay the video if the recipe came from one
An imported TikTok or YouTube recipe keeps its video, so the ten seconds where they fold the dough are a tap away.
When it does not work
- It advanced while you were still chopping. Hands-free leaves a pause after each step, but a slow step needs a timer. Set one and it waits.
- You cannot hear it over the extractor fan. Advancing does not depend on the narration being heard, so it keeps moving. Turn the fan down or use the on-screen control.
- The steps are one enormous paragraph. That is how the source wrote it. Ask Tableful to split the method into single actions and cook from that version.
- The recipe has no method. Some imports are an ingredient list only, and cooking mode is hidden rather than shown empty. Add the steps and it appears.
Questions people ask
Does hands-free need an internet connection?
No. The recipe is on your device and so is the narration.
Can I use it with a recipe I typed myself?
Yes. Every recipe in your kitchen works the same way, whatever route it arrived by.
What is a Live Activity?
The card iOS shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island for something that is happening now. Tableful uses it for the step you are on and the timer that is running.
Related guides
Turn a plan into a grocery list: the step before the cooking.
Save a recipe from YouTube: so the video is there while you cook.
Scan a cookbook page: get the book off the counter.
Make a weekly meal plan: so tonight is already decided.
Tableful vs Mise: compared on the cooking layer.
Reviewed September 2026. Tableful can only read content it can reach: private, deleted, region-restricted or paywalled posts may not be readable. Nutrition figures are estimates for meal decisions, not medical advice.