You can now have verbal conversations with Anthropic's Claude chatbot
What's the story
Anthropic has introduced a major update to its AI assistant, Claude.
The company has launched a new beta feature called "voice mode," which lets users have fully verbal conversations with Claude on their iOS and Android devices.
The facility is being rolled out in English to all users, both free and paid, over the next few weeks.
Feature details
Voice mode: A hands-free interaction with Claude
The voice mode feature provides a hands-free manner to interact with the AI. Users can talk to Claude and hear its responses aloud, making the experience more interactive.
The feature also depicts summarized key points on-screen while Claude speaks and allows seamless switching between text and voice within a single conversation.
Premium perks
Advanced features for paid users
For paid users, the voice mode feature comes with integration with Google Calendar, Gmail, and Google Docs (the latter is Enterprise-only).
This allows you to schedule meetings, check emails, or review documents without any manual input.
You can link your Google account through the Settings menu in the app where toggles and setup instructions are provided.
User guide
Accessing and using voice mode on Claude app
To use the new feature, just open the Claude app on your iOS or Android phone.
Then, press the voice mode icon (a sound wave logo next to the microphone in the input field) and select one of five available voices.
You can then start a natural conversation with Claude by speaking directly into your device's microphone.
Market
Claude's voice interface and AI chatbot competition
The voice interface of the Claude app comes with intuitive controls.
You can send your spoken message by tapping an arrow, interrupt mid-response with a stop button, or exit the mode altogether by tapping an "X."
Other options like camera access or file attachments are also available for a richer experience.
Notably, Anthropic isn't the only one in this game; other AI firms like OpenAI and Google have also launched voice chat experiences for their respective chatbots.