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Get started with Voice

Are you ready to serve your bot content over the phone? This guide takes you through taking your bot to the next level by adapting your messaging content for voice conversations.

note

This feature may not be included with your organization's subscription package. For more information, see Ada's Pricing page, or contact your Ada team.

Before you begin​

Before you get started with Voice, take a moment to learn some background information. Then, you need to set up an account and phone number with Twilio.

Understand Voice's limitations​

It's important to understand some limitations with Voice. Generally, bots are designed to accommodate caller interruptions so they can connect callers with the information they need sooner. However, the caller and the bot speaking over each other can create a confusing experience, and can get in the way of a caller getting their intent resolved.

In some cases, like List Option blocks, we encourage interruptions so callers don't have to listen to the entire lists. However, because Speak blocks (the voice equivalents of Text blocks) might contain crucial information for callers, we don't allow callers to interrupt them.

Set up a Twilio account​

Voice works by integrating a Twilio account with your bot.

  • If your Voice subscription package includes Twilio, skip ahead to Enable Voice in multiple languages. Your Ada team will set up your Twilio account for you.
  • If you're using your own Twilio account, follow the below instructions to prepare an account and phone number to use with your bot.
important

Your usage of Voice is subject to both applicable privacy and phone communication laws, and Twilio's policies. These may vary based on your location and industry. If you have any questions, please contact Ada's or Twilio's support.

  1. If your organization doesn't already have one, set up an account with Twilio. For more information, see View and Create New Accounts in Twilio Console at Twilio's Help Center.

  2. Set up one or more phone numbers with Twilio, using one of the following options:

  3. Submit your organization's toll-free phone number(s) to Twilio for verification.

    • If you are using a toll-free number with your bot and you want to be able to send SMS messages from it during a phone conversation, you will need to submit a Toll-Free Message Verification request to Twilio. For more information, see Toll-Free Message Verification for US/Canada at Twilio's Help Center.

    • If you are using a local number with your bot and you want to be able to send SMS messages from it during a phone conversation, you will need to submit an A2P (Application to Person) 10DLC (10 digit long code) registration request to Twilio. For more information, see Programmable Messaging and A2P 10DLC at Twilio's Help Center.

After getting your phone number set up with Twilio, you can connect it with your bot.

Connect your Twilio account with your Ada bot​

  • If your Voice subscription package includes Twilio, skip ahead to Enable Voice in multiple languages. Your Ada team will connect your Twilio account and bot for you.
  • If you're setting up your own Twilio account, once you have your Twilio account and phone number set up, follow these steps to put your account details into your bot.

In your Twilio account, you need to obtain your account string identifier (SID), and create an API key to use with Ada.

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations.

  2. Under Channels Integrations, beside Voice, click Configure. Keep this window open as you go into your Twilio account to get your account details, so you can paste them in as you find them.

  3. In your Twilio console, in your account info, find your Account SID. Your Account SID is a unique identifier that acts like a username when you're using Twilio's API. For information on how to find it, see Auth Tokens and How to Change Them at Twilio's Help Center.

  4. On the Ada dashboard, under Twilio Configuration, paste your Account SID into the Twilio Account SID field.

  5. In your Twilio console, create a new API key. Enter a name into the Friendly name field, set the Key Type to Main, and leave the other settings with their default values.

    For information on how to create an API key, see API Keys and How to Change Them at Twilio's Help Center. When you create an API key, you get both a key and a secret. You can only view the secret once for security reasons, so make sure you save it in a safe place.

  6. On the Ada dashboard, under Twilio Configuration, paste the API key into the Twilio API Key SID field, and paste the secret into the Twilio API Key Secret field.

  7. Configure your bot to use a phone number, or configure a SIP address to handle transfers between your bot and your CCaaS provider. Your bot can only use one or the other. Click a section to expand the full instructions.

    For more information on how you can configure transfers either using the phone network or over the internet, see Integrate your voice bot with your Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) provider.

    Configure a phone number with your bot

    1. Select Phone Number.

    2. Under Default phone number, enter your Twilio phone number. This is the phone number your customers will call to interact with your bot.

    3. If required, you can add additional numbers if you want to use them to serve different audiences (e.g,. callers who want to speak in specific languages, or if your bot serves multiple brands). To do this, click Add another phone number, add the number, and select a default language for it.

    4. Under Fallback phone number, enter a fallback number. In case there are issues with your bot's phone number, your bot can redirect callers to a fallback phone number; for example, a number that goes directly to human support.

    5. If required, you can select Use a language-specific SMS number and enter a different phone number to send and receive SMS messages instead of your main phone number for that language.

    Configure a SIP address with your bot

    1. Select SIP Address.

    2. Under Twilio SIP domain name, enter a name for your SIP domain, ending with .sip.twilio.com.

      If the domain doesn't already exist in Twilio, putting it in Ada will automatically create it, but you'll still have to go into Twilio and configure it.

    3. If required, you can add additional SIP addresses if you want to use them to serve different audiences (e.g,. callers who want to speak in specific languages, or if your bot serves multiple brands). To do this, click Add another SIP address, add the address, and select a default language for it.

    4. Under Fallback SIP address, enter a fallback SIP address. In case there are issues with your main SIP domain, your bot can redirect callers to this address, which should then direct to your Interactive Voice Response (IVR) provider.

    5. Under SMS phone number, enter your Twilio phone number, so your bot can use it to send and receive SMS messages, and so you can use it when you're testing your bot.

  8. Click Save. After you have connected your bot, the Phone toggle automatically switches on.

The configuration section of your bot has some additional options you can set, but we'll cover those and what they mean in later topics.

Enable Voice in multiple languages​

You can enable different languages for customers to speak with your bot with over the phone. For more information on enabling languages, see Support multiple languages in the same bot.

The following languages are available for voice:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Dutch

If you enable any of the above languages in your bot, that language will be available in both messaging and voice - you can't have any of these languages only enabled for one or the other.

tip

We don't recommend using automatic translations for response content, because translating content while the customer is on the phone can lead to unwanted pauses during the conversation. Instead, use manual translations wherever possible to keep your conversations flowing.

Choose regional dialects for your languages​

Some of the languages available in Voice also have support for different regional dialects of those languages:

  • English

    • Australia
    • Canada
    • United Kingdom
    • United States

  • French

    • Canada
    • France

  • Spanish

    • Spain
    • United States

For each of the above languages, you can choose one dialect to use in your bot, which affects two things:

  • Speech transcription models

    Your bot uses a speech transcription model to transcribe what callers say and convert it to text. Ada can use transcription models that are specifically trained using speaking data using a particular dialect to improve transcription accuracy.

  • Speaking voices

    When you choose a dialect for your bot, your bot will automatically use the default speaking voice for that language and dialect. You can always go into your settings and choose a different voice for that dialect instead.

Here's how you can change the dialects available for your bot:

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations.

  2. Under Channels Integrations, beside Voice, click Configure. The Phone window opens.

  3. On the Phone window, click the Dialects tab.

  4. For each language that has dialects available, in the Dialect/region list, select an available dialect.

  5. Click Save. Your bot immediately starts using the dialects you chose for all conversations in the corresponding languages, for both internal testing and for any live voice content in your bot.

Understand how your bot determines the caller's language​

Your bot determines the language to use with your caller based on the language metavariable. There are a few ways you can set the caller's language:

  • Set a default language for the phone number or SIP address

    When you were setting up your Twilio account with your bot, you might have set a default language for one or more phone numbers or SIP addresses. If you did, all phone numbers to that number or SIP address start with the language metavariable set to that language.

  • Let callers select from a menu of enabled languages

    You can choose to begin all of your bot's calls with a menu that allows callers to select one of your enabled languages. If you turn on this menu, your bot will serve it to all callers before the Greeting, even if the number is associated with a specific dialect.

    1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations.

    2. Under Channels Integrations, beside Voice, click Configure. The Phone window opens.

    3. On the Phone window, click the Language selection tab.

    4. To turn on the menu, select the Let callers select their own language checkbox. Your bot's enabled languages appear.

    5. For each of your enabled languages:

      • Toggle the language On or Off to control whether it appears in the menu.

      • For languages you want to appear in the menu, drag them higher or lower in the list. Your bot will automatically assign each language a number that the caller than dial into their dialpad to select.

    6. Click Save. Your language selection menu becomes available immediately for all callers.

  • Use the End Users API

    You can use the End Users API to update a user's profile to set the language metavariable.

  • Send language information in the SIP header

    If you're using SIP transfers to transfer callers to a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS), you can include the language value in the user-to-user header.

    note

    If you set a default language for that SIP address, the language in the header overwrites the default language.

Choose a speaking voice for your bot​

Choosing a speaking voice for your bot is an important part of your bot's branding. You can change your bot's voice at any time to better fit your bot's branding needs.

You can choose voices from two providers:

  • Google: Currently, we only offer Google voices that have US accents. If you want more information about the voices Google offers, see Supported voices and languages page at Google Cloud's documentation.

  • ElevenLabs: We offer a selection of voices from ElevenLabs, all of which appear with human names in your dashboard.

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While Google voices support SSML, which is the markup you can use to control how your bot pronounces content in voice conversations, ElevenLabs voices don't.

Each voice you can choose lists the provider as part of the voice's name. Keep these differences in functionality in mind as you select the one your bot uses.

  1. On the Ada dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations.

  2. Under Channels Integrations, beside Voice, click Configure. The Voice window opens.

  3. In the Voice window, click the Speaking voice tab.

  4. Under Speaking voice, select a voice for each language you have enabled in your bot.

  5. Optionally, in the text field, you can type in a text sample, like a message from your bot, so you can hear your bot read out a specific piece of your bot content. Then, you can click the Play button beside a selected voice to play the sample.

  6. Click Save. Your bot immediately starts using the voices you selected for both internal testing and for any live voice content in your bot.

Have any questions? Contact your Ada team, or email us at .