Text & Voice Input
Talk or type in the same conversation - here is how both work.
Every conversation on Aura is one session where you can talk or type at any moment. The companion always answers aloud, with live captions (a transcript) on screen, so you can follow along by listening, reading, or both.
Starting a conversation
The chat landing has a single pill next to the input box:
- Talk - starts the conversation with your microphone on. Your browser asks for microphone permission the first time.
- Chat - once you have typed something in the box, the pill becomes Chat. It starts the same conversation with your microphone off, so there is no permission prompt.
Typing
The text input bar sits at the bottom of the chat screen. Here's how it works:
- Send a message - Type your message and press Enter to send.
- New line - Press Shift + Enter to add a new line without sending.
- Cancel a response - If the companion is in the middle of replying, you can click the stop button to cancel the response.
Once the conversation is under way, the Send button appears as an arrow icon and activates as soon as you type something. When the companion is responding, it changes to a stop button.
You can type at any point in the conversation, even while your microphone is on. If you'd rather not have the companion speak out loud (for example, so you can type quietly), tap the speaker button to mute its voice. The live captions keep appearing, and you can unmute it any time.
Voice
You can talk to companions using your microphone.
- Tap Talk on the landing screen, or tap the microphone button next to the text input if you started by typing.
- Your browser will ask for microphone permission the first time - grant it to continue. If you've blocked microphone access before, you'll instead see instructions for unblocking it in your specific browser (Chrome, Safari, or Firefox), with a Try Again button to re-check permission, a Dismiss option to back out, and Continue by typing to carry on without the microphone.
- Start speaking. The companion listens and detects when you're done talking.
- The companion processes what you said and responds aloud, with captions on screen.
If your browser blocks the companion's audio (some browsers do until you interact with the page), a notice appears and you tap Tap to enable sound to hear it. The live captions keep going in the meantime.
While your microphone is on, the microphone icon shows that it is active. Tap it again to turn the microphone off - the conversation carries on, and you can keep typing.
Voice works best in a quiet environment. If the companion has trouble understanding you, try speaking clearly and at a normal pace.
While a conversation is connecting or active, a status badge above the input shows exactly what's happening - connecting, thinking, speaking, listening, or winding down. See Session Status for every state, what triggers it, and what happens when the session ends.
Message actions
Hover a companion's reply and a Copy button appears below it - click it to copy the message text to your clipboard. You'll see a brief checkmark confirming the copy. There's no regenerate, edit, delete, or like/dislike option on individual messages - copy is the only per-message action.
Tips
- You can type a follow-up message while the companion is still responding - it will be queued and sent once the current response finishes.
- Long messages work fine - the input allows up to 10,000 characters, far more than a typical message needs.
- Talking and typing can be mixed freely in the same conversation. You might type one question and speak the next.
See the Keyboard & Pointer reference for every chat shortcut in one place.
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