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.
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. Depending on how much of the process you already have done, this process may take several weeks to complete.
Understand Voice's limitations
It's important to understand some limitations with Voice:
We currently only support calls in English.
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. 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.
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.
Set up a toll-free phone number with Twilio, using one of the following options:
Purchase a phone number through Twilio. For more information, see How to Search for and Buy a Twilio Phone Number from Console at Twilio's Help Center.
Port an existing phone number from another service provider to Twilio. For more information, see Porting a Phone Number to Twilio at Twilio's Help Center.
Submit your organization's toll-free phone number to Twilio for verification. For more information, see Toll-Free Message Verification for US/Canada 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
Once you have your Twilio account and phone number set up, you can 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. Follow these steps to get them and put them into your bot settings:
On the Ada dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations.
Under Channels Integrations, beside Phone, 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.
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.
On the Ada dashboard, under Twilio Configuration, paste your Account SID into the Twilio Account SID field.
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.
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.
Under Phone Number, enter your Twilio phone number into the Main phone number field. This is the phone number that chatters will call to interact with your bot.
Enter a fallback number into the Fallback phone number field. 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.
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.
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.
Currently, we only offer voices that have US accents. If you want more information about the full list of voices that Ada supports a subset of, see Supported voices and languages page at Google Cloud's documentation.
On the Ada dashboard, go to Settings > Bot Setup > Bot Persona.
Optionally, in the speech bubble, 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.
Under Speaking Voice, select a voice. Each time you select a different voice, your bot automatically generates a preview of the text in the speech bubble so you can hear what it would sound like over the phone.
Click Save. Your bot immediately starts using the voice 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 help@ada.support.