1. A method operable on an electronic device, comprising: during media playback, detecting an event; initiating output of a first indication of the event, wherein the first indication is a first audio overlay on top of the media playback and indicates that speech recognition is available for a predefined period of time; determining an event type from a plurality of event types, wherein each of the plurality of event types is associated with a set of speech commands; determining a set of speech commands associated with the event type; executing a speech recognition application to process speech commands associated with the event and to provide options to the user for controlling the electronic device, wherein executing the speech recognition application includes initiating a speech recognition engine using the set of speech commands associated with the event type; initiating output of a second indication of a state of readiness to process speech commands in association with the event, wherein the second indication is an audio overlay on top of the media playback; identifying a recognized speech command from a set of expected speech commands using custom speech recognition grammar based on the event; and in response to identifying the recognized speech command: pausing the media playback; and executing the recognized speech command.