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Talk to Tessa with voice

This guide shows how to use speech to ask Tessa questions and hear her responses, without taking your hands off your work.

Talk to Tessa like a teammate. Ask questions out loud, get spoken answers back - no keyboard required.

Voice interaction lets you have a natural conversation with Tessa using speech recognition and synthesis. This is especially valuable in VR, where typing is impractical and hands-free operation keeps you immersed in the 3D environment.

Activating Voice

  1. Click the microphone icon in the chat panel to begin listening
  2. Type /voice on to enable voice mode
  3. Type /voice to toggle voice on or off

Once active, Tessa listens for your question, processes it, and responds with synthesized speech while also showing the text response in the chat panel.

Voice Commands

Command What It Does
/voice Toggle voice mode on/off
/voice on Enable voice mode
/voice off Disable voice mode
/mute Mute Tessa's speech output (she still responds in text)
/unmute Re-enable Tessa's speech output

Mute vs voice off

/mute silences Tessa's spoken responses but keeps voice recognition active - you can still speak to her. /voice off disables both speech input and output.

Changing Tessa's Voice

Tessa can speak in different voices. Use the voice tool to browse and switch:

What to Say Effect
"List available voices" Shows voices filtered by locale and gender
"Preview the Jenny voice" Plays a sample of a specific voice
"Change your voice to Jenny" Switches to a named voice
"What voice are you using?" Shows current voice

Tessa supports fuzzy matching - saying "Jenny" resolves to the full voice name (e.g., "en-US-JennyNeural"). Your voice selection persists across sessions.

Interrupting Tessa

If Tessa is speaking and you need to cut in:

  • Press Escape to stop her current speech immediately

Pressing Escape does not lose your place in the conversation. Tessa's text response remains in the chat, and you can continue asking follow-up questions right away.

Tips for VR Headset Users

Voice is the primary interaction mode for VR:

  • Keep voice mode on so the microphone stays active between questions. You can have a continuous conversation without re-activating the mic each time.
  • Be specific with service names - speak them clearly. Tessa uses your Grid's service catalog to match what she hears.
  • Combine voice with navigation - teleport to a service platform and ask "What's wrong here?" Tessa uses your position as context.

Combining Voice and Text

Voice and text work interchangeably in the same conversation:

  • Speak a question, then type a follow-up
  • Type a question, then speak "Tell me more"
  • Switch between modes freely - conversation context is preserved regardless of input method

Chat history captures both voice and typed interactions, and everything is saved across sessions.