Voice Interview Experience

Voice interviews are the recommended mode for most research studies. They produce richer, more natural responses because participants can speak freely rather than typing. Here is a complete walkthrough of what participants experience from the moment they choose voice mode to the final thank-you screen.

Choosing Voice Mode

When a participant arrives at your interview landing page, they see a mode selector asking "How would you like to chat?" with two options: Voice and Text. Voice is marked as the recommended mode, and an estimated duration is shown for each.

The participant taps Voice and then clicks the start button to proceed.

If you have configured your project to offer only one mode — for example, voice only — the mode selector is skipped entirely and participants go straight to the next step.

Microphone Permission

Before the conversation begins, the browser prompts the participant to grant microphone access. This is a standard browser permission dialog that looks slightly different on each browser and operating system.

A few things to note:

• First-time visitors will always see this prompt. Once they grant permission, the browser remembers it for future visits.
• HTTPS is required. Microphone access only works on pages served over a secure connection. If your interview link uses HTTP, the browser will block the request.
• If permission is denied, the participant is offered the option to switch to text mode instead.

The Conversation

Once microphone access is granted, the interview begins immediately. Here is what the participant experiences:

The AI Interviewer Speaks First

The conversation opens with a warm greeting from the AI interviewer. The participant hears a natural-sounding voice that introduces the topic and asks the first question. The AI interviewer's name and avatar are displayed on screen.

Participants Speak Naturally

There is no need to press a button to talk. The system detects when the participant is speaking and when they have finished. It feels like a real phone call or video chat — just talk, pause, and the interviewer responds.

Real-Time Follow-Up Questions

The AI interviewer listens carefully and asks follow-up questions based on what the participant says. If someone mentions an interesting detail, the interviewer probes deeper. If a response is vague, the interviewer asks for clarification. This dynamic back-and-forth is what makes voice interviews so effective for qualitative research.

Visual Feedback

While the conversation is happening, the participant sees:

• An animated visual indicator that responds to audio — it pulses and moves when the interviewer or participant is speaking
• The AI interviewer's name so the conversation feels personal
• A mute button for moments when the participant needs to cough, speak to someone else, or take a brief pause

No Transcript Visible

During a voice interview, participants do not see a text transcript of the conversation. The interface is intentionally minimal to keep the focus on the conversation itself, just like a real interview.

Switching to Text Mode

At any point during a voice interview, participants can switch to text mode. This is helpful if:

• Their microphone stops working mid-conversation
• They move to a noisy environment
• They simply prefer typing for a particular answer

The switch is seamless — the conversation history carries over, and the AI interviewer picks up right where it left off, now in text form. See Text Interview Experience for details on what text mode looks like.

Interview Duration

Voice interviews tend to run faster than text interviews because speaking is quicker than typing. A typical voice interview takes about 10 minutes, though this depends on the complexity of your research questions and how much the participant has to share.

The AI interviewer manages the pacing automatically. It will cover all the key topics in your research brief and naturally wind down the conversation when enough ground has been covered.

Automatic Completion

When the AI interviewer determines that it has gathered sufficient responses across all the topics in your research brief, it wraps up the conversation naturally — thanking the participant and saying goodbye.

Alternatively, participants can end the interview at any time by clicking the Done button. Either way, the conversation moves to the completion flow.

Audio Quality Tips

To help your participants have the best experience, consider sharing these tips in your outreach:

1. Use headphones. This prevents echo and improves audio clarity for the AI interviewer.
2. Find a quiet space. Background noise can interfere with speech detection.
3. Use a stable internet connection. Voice interviews require real-time audio streaming, so a strong connection helps avoid interruptions.
4. Use Chrome or a Chromium-based browser. These tend to have the best support for real-time audio features.

What Researchers See

As the study owner, you do not hear the interview in real time. Instead, you see completed interviews in your project dashboard, each with:

• A full text transcript of the conversation
• A quality score assigned by Koji's analysis
• AI-generated insights and themes

Voice and text interviews produce identical output in your dashboard — the transcript, score, and insights look the same regardless of which mode the participant used.

Next Steps

• Text Interview Experience — how text mode works
• Interview Landing Page — what participants see before the interview starts
• Interview Completion Flow — what happens when the interview ends