# VAD & press-to-talk

Once you have up ready and set up on a device, you will have to choose how will you listen to your customer? You can either use VAD (Voice activity detection), or PTT (press-to-talk) button in the screen. 

**VAD -** it allows for more natural conversation as the virtual being is listening all the time and answers all the questions without any additional interaction from the user. You will notice a status change on the app - if the microphones pics up human speech the status will change from "Start Talking" to "Listening" and "Processing". This is the most natural form of communication with virtual beings. 

One variation of this solution involves using wake-up-word such as "Hey Siri" or "OK Google", but at the moment this feature is unavailable.

However, this solution means that virtual being will listen to every phrase that the users say and may pick up other people talking in the room. It requires very precise microphone setup and is not recommended for very noisy or crowded locations.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Pros:** natural communication, no other interaction requires

**Cons:** hard to set up, sensitive to other people speaking, not suitable for noisy environment.
{% endhint %}

**PTT (press-to-talk) -** press-to-talk is a virtual on-screen or physical button that has to be pressed (continuously) by the user in order for it to start capturing human speech. If the button is on the touch screen this will imply that the user will be close to your microphone set up. Due to this you may be less accurate with microphone settings. Also, less unwanted noise will be captured by microphones as they will be active only for a certain period of time (while speaking). 

On the other hand, this solution might be less intuitive for humans, and requires additional action (pressing the button).

{% hint style="info" %}
**Pros:** easy to set-up, less unwanted speech caught by the microphones

**Cons:** less natural experience, 
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}
If you work in a very noisy environment we strongly recommend using PTT over VAD.
{% endhint %}


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