> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.itellico.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Voice Activity Detection & Turn Detection
> Configure response timing, AI turn detection, and interrupt handling for natural conversation flow
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**Access:** Open an agent and go to **Call Flow**, then scroll to **Conversation Flow**.
## How Turn Detection Works
Voice Activity Detection (VAD) and turn detection decide when the caller has finished speaking and when the agent should respond. These controls affect perceived responsiveness, interruptions, and whether the agent waits through natural pauses.
These settings apply to voice conversations, including phone calls and web calls. Simple mode exposes response timing presets. Expert mode adds interruption controls, AI turn detection, and advanced timing sliders.
## Simple Mode
Simple mode exposes **Response Timing** presets:
Longer pauses before responding. Use this for thoughtful conversations, number collection, or flows where callers often pause mid-sentence.
A middle ground for general-purpose conversations.
Faster responses. Use this for quick exchanges, but test for accidental interruptions.
## Expert Mode Controls
Controls whether callers can speak over the agent while it is talking.
Turn this off for legal disclosures, required announcements, or scripted sections where the caller should hear the full message.
Choose **Patient**, **Balanced**, **Responsive**, or **Custom**.
The presets update the underlying timing values together. Choose **Custom** when you need to tune the sliders directly.
Enables AI-based end-of-turn detection. When disabled, the runtime uses VAD-only detection.
AI Turn Detection can reduce mid-sentence cutoffs, but it may add a small amount of latency.
Expert mode exposes three sliders:
* **Silence before responding:** `0.10s-1.00s`
* **Speech duration to trigger interrupt:** `0.10s-3.00s`
* **Minimum words to interrupt:** `0-5`
These settings are the dashboard-supported controls for tuning responsiveness and interruption stability.
## AI Turn Detection
AI Turn Detection is the dashboard control for smart endpointing. It uses an AI model to detect when a caller has finished their turn, rather than relying only on a raw silence threshold.
**Benefits:**
* Reduces false cutoffs during natural pauses
* Improves handling for multi-clause sentences
* Keeps barge-in behavior more stable
* Falls back to VAD-only behavior if the AI turn detector is unavailable
Enable it to test if it produces better results for your use case.
## Configuration Best Practices
Use **Balanced** for general support or booking agents. Use **Patient** if callers often pause to think. Use **Responsive** only after testing for interruptions.
Test callers who speak at different speeds, use pauses, read numbers, and interrupt the agent.
If you switch presets and change interruption sliders together, it becomes hard to identify which change improved or broke the conversation.
Browser tests are useful, but phone audio exposes turn-taking problems more clearly.
## Troubleshooting
Switch to **Patient**, increase **Silence before responding**, increase **Minimum words to interrupt**, or enable **AI Turn Detection**.
Switch to **Responsive**, reduce **Silence before responding**, or disable **AI Turn Detection** if the added patience is not needed.
Make sure **Allow Interruptions** is enabled, reduce **Speech duration to trigger interrupt**, and reduce **Minimum words to interrupt**.
Use **Patient** or **Balanced**, increase **Speech duration to trigger interrupt**, and require at least one or two words before interrupting.
## Related Features
Configure voice speed and provider-specific voice controls
Decide what happens during silence
Configure required messages that should usually not be interrupted
Configure phone keypad interaction