Silence, reminders and call duration
The Reminders card under Advanced: how long the agent waits before prompting a silent caller, how often, and when it hangs up.
Voice agentsThe Reminders card under Advanced controls what happens when nobody is talking, and how long a call may last at most. Four settings: the delay before the first reminder, the number of reminders, the total silence before hanging up, and the hard cut-off in minutes.
Configuring it
- Open the agent and choose Advanced under Build.
- In Reminders, set the four values.
- Save.
Reference
| Field | Default | Unit | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reminder delay (s) | 60 | s | 20 to 300, step 1 | How long to wait before the first reminder |
| Max reminders | 2 | count | 1 to 5, step 1 | Maximum reminders before giving up |
| Max silence | 120 | s | 10 to 600, step 1 | Hangs up after this many seconds of total silence |
| Max call duration | 60 | min | 1 to 60, step 1 | Hard cut-off in minutes |
How the timers play out
With the defaults: the caller stops answering. After 60 s of silence the agent says a reminder, in its own words, such as asking whether the caller is still there. It repeats up to 3 times, pacing the reminders across the silence. At 120 s of total silence it ends the call. Separately, at 60 min from the start, the call is cut whatever is happening.
- Reminder delay is measured from the last speech. Set it shorter than Max silence, or no reminder is ever spoken.
- Max silence is total silence in the call, not since the last reminder. With a short Max silence and a long Reminder delay, the call ends without a reminder.
- Max call duration is a hard limit, mid-sentence if need be. It is the ceiling on what one call can cost.
Choosing values
| Line | Reminder delay | Max reminders | Max silence | Max call duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inbound reception | 30 s | 2 | 60 s | 15 min |
| Outbound campaign | 20 s | 1 | 30 s | 10 min |
| Long intake or survey | 60 s | 3 | 120 s | 30 min |
Behaviour and limits
- Silence is what voice activity detection did not classify as speech. Hold music or line noise may count as silence or as speech depending on Activation threshold.
- A reminder is a normal agent turn: it is in the transcript and follows the prompt’s style.
- A call ended by Max silence or Max call duration shows the reason under Call Logs, in the outcome card’s Disconnect reason.
- The browser Call test obeys the same timers.
Verify
Set Reminder delay to 20 s and Max silence to 40 s, start a call under Testing, Call, and stay quiet. The agent prompts you at 20 s and hangs up at 40 s. Restore the values afterwards.
Troubleshooting
- No reminder is spoken. Reminder delay is longer than Max silence.
- Calls end while the caller is on hold. Raise Max silence, or write the prompt so the agent keeps talking during holds.
- A call was cut mid-conversation. It hit Max call duration. Check the duration under Call Logs and raise the limit.