Listen and dictate
Your agent’s replies can be read aloud, and you can speak a message instead of typing it. Both work in the console, on a computer or a phone.
Listen to a reply
Press ▶ Listen at the top of a reply, next to Copy. The reply is read a point at a time: lists are walked through, headings lead into each part, and code and tables are described rather than read out symbol by symbol. The point being read is highlighted.
- Pause and Resume.
- ⏭ skips to the next point.
- The speed button cycles through 1×, 1.25×, 1.5×, 1.75× and 2×, for this browser.
- ■ stops.
One reply plays at a time: starting another stops the first.
On the go
On an iPhone, replies play through the loudspeaker, not the earpiece, in Safari and in Chrome, even after you have recorded a voice message and even with the ringer switched off.
Long replies are easy to take in while you walk or drive: ask for a briefing written to be heard (“keep it short, no tables”), press Listen before you set off, and skip a point at a time.
Dictate a message
Press the microphone in the message box (Record a voice message), or double-tap the Control key, and speak. Press it again to stop. Before you send, you can play the recording back or throw it away and start again.
A recording can run for up to 20 minutes, so a whole brief fits in one message. In the last minute a chime sounds and a countdown shows, so you are never cut off without warning. Starting a recording stops any reply being read aloud, and Listen waits until you have finished recording.
What your agent receives
When you send, the message shows Transcribing… and then your words, marked Transcribed from audio. The words are cleaned up so they read as if typed: false starts, repeats and filler words go, and names your agent knows (its people, your agents, your business) are spelled the way it knows them. Nothing is added that you did not say.
When the clean-up changed your words, your agent gets both the cleaned-up text and your original words, and under the message Original transcript opens what you actually said, so you can check one against the other.
Next: Threads and chat · Getting good results · Automations