Silence Tolerance

What is Silence Tolerance?

During a conversation, users may pause for various reasons:

Thinking about their response
Distracted by something
Unsure how to proceed
Technical issues with the call

Silence Tolerance settings control how long the agent waits before taking action.

Key Timers

Timer	Purpose	Typical Range
Silence Response Delay	Time before prompting a silent user	4-48 seconds
Silence Shutdown Delay	Time before ending an abandoned call	30-360 seconds

How It Works

User stops speaking
   Response and Shutdown Delay timers start
      User speaks → Timer resets, conversation continues
      Timer expires → Agent prompts user
          User responds → Conversation continues
          No response → Shutdown timer continues
              User speaks → Timer resets
              Shutdown timer expires → Assistant says it is ending the call because it hasn't heard any response

The Silence Tolerance property on each step controls silence tolerance behavior:

Setting	Response Delay	Shutdown Delay	Use Case
hurried	approx. 4s	approx. 30s	Almost every step
patient	approx. 16s	approx. 120s	Caller has gone to find something
extremely patient	approx. 48s	approx. 360s	Caller is doing a task and will report back
infinite	No prompting	No auto-shutdown	User-controlled timing

When to Use Each Setting

Hurried (Default)

Best for: almost every step — the recommended starting point, including questions that need a moment’s thought (that is Response Eagerness, not silence tolerance). Example: “Is Tuesday at 2pm okay?”

Patient

Best for: the assistant has asked the caller to go and find something. Example: “Can you grab your policy number?”

Extremely Patient

Best for: the assistant has asked the caller to do something and report back when it’s done. Examples: “Reply to the text I’ve just sent and let me know when it’s done”, “Can you check the serial number on the back of the device and read it out?”

Infinite

Best for:

The assistant is waiting on something outside the conversation: the caller is on hold, a third party is being fetched to the phone, or the caller has asked the assistant to hold while they step away

Note: Infinite silence tolerance is still limited by the maximum call duration. See Settings for call duration configuration.

Silence Prompts

When the response delay expires, the agent prompts the user to re-engage:

Silence Response: The assistant attempts to continue the current step naturally
Silence Shutdown: The assistant says that it hasn't been able to hear the user, then goodbye and ends the call.

To lengthen or shorten every silence wait for the rest of a call (for example after the caller says they need to go and find a document), a Code Step can call idle_offset(seconds). The re-engagement prompt fires once per quiet period. If it is cancelled before the caller ever hears it — because the assistant was interrupted, or the call was busy doing something else — it is re-armed and spoken as soon as it can be, rather than being counted as already said. Silence tolerance is applied per step, so each step waits for as long as its own setting says.

Interaction with Other Settings

Silence tolerance works alongside other dynamics:

Combined With	Effect
Patient response eagerness	Waits longer before responding + longer before following-up
Deep thinking effort	More reasoning time + patient silence handling
Fast Response	Decides whether these timers apply at all. After a line that isn’t a question (or a step set to Force), the assistant moves on after a short pause instead of waiting out the step’s Silence Tolerance.
Uninterruptible turn	Speech the caller makes during a protected turn isn’t answered, but it still resets these timers.

Best Practices

Configure per step — Set silence tolerance on each step based on the expected response
Match tolerance to the task, not the question — Longer tolerance is for callers who have gone to fetch something or do something; a hard question needs a slower Response Eagerness, not a longer silence timer
Consider your audience — Elderly users may need more time
Test realistic scenarios — Try with actual users, not just ideal cases

Next Steps

Response Eagerness — Control how quickly the agent responds
Thinking Effort — Adjust LLM reasoning depth
Fast Response — Decide whether a step waits for a reply at all
Overview — See all conversation dynamics

Get Started & Build

Calls, Contacts & Batches

Numbers & Routing

Tools, Automations & Integrations

Account, Billing & Security

Silence Tolerance

What is Silence Tolerance?

Key Timers

How It Works

When to Use Each Setting

Hurried (Default)

Patient

Extremely Patient

Infinite

Silence Prompts

Interaction with Other Settings

Best Practices

Next Steps

​What is Silence Tolerance?

​Key Timers

​How It Works

​When to Use Each Setting

​Hurried (Default)

​Patient

​Extremely Patient

​Infinite

​Silence Prompts

​Interaction with Other Settings

​Best Practices

​Next Steps

What is Silence Tolerance?

Key Timers

How It Works

When to Use Each Setting

Hurried (Default)

Patient

Extremely Patient

Infinite

Silence Prompts

Interaction with Other Settings

Best Practices

Next Steps