First message and conversation

Who speaks first on a call and what the agent says when it does, set in the Conversation card on a voice agent, with the wording that works.

Voice agents

The Conversation card on Settings decides how a call opens. Who talks first chooses between the agent greeting immediately and the agent waiting for the caller; First message is the exact line the agent says when it opens.

The Conversation card with Who talks first and First message — The Conversation card.

Configuring it

Field	Options	Default
Who talks first	Agent speaks first: the agent greets the caller immediately. Human speaks first: the agent waits for the caller to speak.	Agent speaks first
First message	Free text. The opening line, shown only while Who talks first is Agent speaks first. Dynamic variables such as `{{customer_name}}` are filled in.	Empty

The Who talks first list with Agent speaks first and Human speaks first — The two Who talks first options.

Choosing who talks first

Outbound calls: the agent. The person answered a call they did not expect, and silence makes them hang up. Say who is calling and why in the first sentence.
Inbound calls to a business line: the agent. Callers expect a greeting.
Transfers from a person or an IVR: usually the caller, who was told to state their request. Pair it with the reminder settings so the agent prompts if nothing is said.
Answering machine detection on outbound calls: with Agent speaks first the message starts as soon as the line opens. See Answering machine detection.

Writing the first message

Name, company, reason, question. “Hi, this is Nora at Riverside Dental. How can I help you today?”
One breath. A long opener is talked over, and the turn detector then treats the interruption as the caller’s first turn.
Match the prompt. The identity in Agent Identity and the name in the first message must agree; the model notices when they do not.
With First message empty and Agent speaks first, the model improvises an opener from the prompt. Fine for tests; write one before going live.

Verify

Open Call under Testing and start a call. With Agent speaks first, the first message is spoken before you say anything and appears as the first transcript line.

Troubleshooting

The agent does not speak first. Who talks first is on Human speaks first. Switch it and Save.
The opener differs from what I wrote. The change is unsaved, or a dynamic variable in it has no value. Check the unsaved bar and the Variables dialog.