# Live settings

Choose a bot's call voice and language, hands-free or hold to talk, when it answers, and how to stop it answering its own echo.

Canonical page: https://themachine.myapps.ai/docs/desktop/live/live-settings

Each bot has its own Live settings. Open the bot's settings (click its name
at the top of the chat), open **Channels**, and find **Live calls** under the
Glyph row. It appears once [Glyph is connected](/docs/desktop/live/set-up-glyph).

![The Live calls settings for a bot](/images/docs/desktop/live-settings.webp)

Changes save as soon as you make them. A small check mark appears next to
**Live calls** when they're saved, and the next call uses them.

> **Not on iPhone and iPad yet**
> These settings apply to calls on Machine Desktop and Android. On iPhone and
> iPad, calls use a simpler connection to Glyph that doesn't take them yet:
> every call there is hands-free, with Glyph's default voice. The same goes for
> any call whose screen says *"Glyph's player isn't allowed in this app yet"*.

## The settings

| Setting | Choices | Default |
|---|---|---|
| **Voice** | **Glyph's default**, or a named voice (see below) | Glyph's default |
| **Language** | **Detect automatically**, English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Hindi, Ukrainian, Chinese | Detect automatically |
| **Talking** | **Hands-free** or **Hold to talk** | Hands-free |
| **When it answers** | **After a short pause** or **When you've finished your thought** | After a short pause |
| **Room** | **Quiet room or headphones**, **Normal**, **Noisy room or laptop speakers** | Normal |
| **Pause before answering** | **Short — quick back-and-forth**, **Normal**, **Long — I pause to think** | Normal |

**Room** and **Pause before answering** only show when **When it answers** is
set to **After a short pause**.

## Voice

Voices come in two groups, and which ones work depends on your **Glyph plan**:

- **Live engine:** Meridian, Quartz, Ripple, Vesper, Willow, Stone, Gleam,
  Bossa, Tempo, Beacon, Delta, Cinder.
- **Classic engine:** Marin, Cedar, Ash, Ballad, Coral, Sage, Verse, Echo,
  Alloy, Shimmer.

**Glyph's default** lets Glyph pick the right voice for your plan. Give
different bots different voices so you can tell them apart on a call.

## Language

**Detect automatically** works for most people. Pick a language if the bot
keeps mishearing you, or if you want it to always answer in that language.

## Talking: hands-free or hold to talk

- **Hands-free:** just talk. The bot works out when you've stopped.
- **Hold to talk:** the bot only hears you while you hold the **Hold to
  talk** button. On a computer you can also hold **Space** or **Enter**, but
  only while that button has keyboard focus (press **Tab** to reach it).
  Good for noisy places and long thinking pauses.

## When it answers

- **After a short pause:** the bot answers once you've been quiet for a
  moment. Fast and natural. Fine-tune it with **Room** and **Pause before
  answering**.
- **When you've finished your thought:** the bot listens to what you're
  saying, not just for silence, and waits until you sound done. Better if you
  pause mid-sentence.

## Room

How loud it is around you. If the bot keeps cutting in because of
background noise, move it one step towards **Noisy room or laptop speakers**.

> **Using laptop speakers?**
> Choose **Noisy room or laptop speakers**. Otherwise the bot can hear its own
> voice through your microphone and answer itself. Headphones avoid the problem
> completely.

## Pause before answering

How long a silence counts as "you've finished":

- **Short:** quick back-and-forth, but it may cut in while you think.
- **Long:** the bot waits longer, so you can pause to think.

## Which settings apply to which voices

From the note under the settings: *"Hold to talk, answer timing, room and
pause apply on the Classic engine."* On the newer Live engine voices, Glyph
handles turn-taking itself, and you can simply talk over the bot to interrupt.