#Voice — Speaking & Listening

Why type when you can talk? And why read when the AI can read to you? Your hands are busy holding groceries, stirring risotto, or just being lazy. We don't judge.

#What It Does

Voice in ambientChat works in both directions. You can speak your questions instead of typing them, and the AI can read its answers aloud instead of making you squint at text. It turns your AI assistant into something closer to an actual conversation — one where the other party happens to know the entire contents of your pantry.

Voice Input uses speech recognition to transcribe what you say into a text message, which then gets sent to the AI just like a typed message. You speak, it types, the AI answers.

Voice Output uses text-to-speech (TTS) to read the AI's responses aloud. When the AI finishes answering, playback controls appear so you can listen, pause, or stop. It's hands-free information retrieval, which is genuinely useful when you're elbow-deep in cookie dough and need to know if your baking powder has expired.

#How to Use It

#iOS App

#Speaking to the AI (Voice Input)

1. Open the Chat tab
2. Tap the microphone button next to the text input field
3. Speak your question clearly — a recording indicator shows the app is listening
4. When you finish speaking, the app transcribes your words into text
5. The transcribed message appears in the text field, and is sent automatically
6. The AI responds as usual, with full access to your inventory, documents, and context

You can speak naturally. "What's expiring this week?" works just as well spoken as typed. The AI doesn't care about your accent — it's heard worse.

#Listening to the AI (Voice Output)

1. When the AI sends a response, playback controls appear on the message
2. Tap Play to have the response read aloud
3. Use Pause to temporarily stop playback
4. Use Stop to end playback entirely
5. The AI reads at your configured speech rate — adjust this in settings if it's too fast or too slow for your taste

#Voice Settings

1. Go to Account (tap your profile icon or the Account tab)
2. Find Voice Settings
3. Here you can:
   • Choose a TTS voice — select from available voices on your device
   • Adjust speech rate — make the AI speak faster or slower
   • Enable or disable voice output — toggle whether playback controls appear on responses

#Via Chat

Voice input and text input produce identical results. The AI doesn't know or care whether you typed or spoke — it receives the same text either way. So every example prompt in every other guide in this knowledge base works with voice too. Just say it instead of typing it.

Some particularly useful voice scenarios:

• "What's expiring this week?" (while unpacking groceries)
• "What spices do I have that go with salmon?" (while staring at salmon)
• "Read me the warranty details for my laptop." (while on hold with tech support)
• "Add a note: I put the Christmas decorations in the garage attic." (while climbing down a ladder)

#Tips & Tricks

• Speak clearly and in a reasonably quiet environment. Speech recognition is impressive but not magical. Background noise, heavy accents, and mumbling all reduce accuracy. If the transcription comes out garbled, you can always edit it before sending.
• Voice output is great for hands-free workflows. Cooking, organizing the garage, or sorting through boxes — any time your hands are occupied but your ears are free, voice output turns the AI into a helpful narrator for your life.
• You can interrupt playback anytime. If the AI starts reading a long response and you got what you needed from the first sentence, just tap Stop. No need to sit through the whole thing politely — the AI won't be offended.

#Options

#Known Limitations

• Voice input requires an internet connection. Speech recognition happens on Apple's servers, so it won't work in airplane mode or without network access. If you're offline, you'll need to type.
• TTS voice selection depends on your device. The available voices come from your iOS settings. Different devices and iOS versions offer different voice options. You can download additional voices in iOS Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Voices.
• No wake word. You can't say "Hey ambientChat" to activate voice input. You need to tap the microphone button first. This is an intentional design choice — the app doesn't listen until you tell it to.
• Long responses may take a moment before audio starts. The text-to-speech engine needs to process the full response before playback begins. For particularly lengthy AI answers, there may be a brief pause before you hear anything.
• Voice input transcription accuracy varies. Product names, brand names, and technical terms may not transcribe perfectly. Review the transcribed text before it sends if accuracy matters for your query.

#Version History