You don't have to type to Atlas. With the message box empty, the send button is a microphone. Tap it once and you're in a live conversation: talk the way you would to a person, Atlas answers within a beat, and you can talk over it to interrupt. Tap Done when you're finished. Everything you say and everything Atlas does still lands in the chat underneath, cards included.
- Tap the microphone in the top bar on your phone (it's on every page), the mic beside Atlas's bubble on a computer, the Talk to Atlas button on Home, or the mic in the chat itself. Allow the microphone the first time.
- Say what you need, the way you'd say it to a person: "who called this morning?", "quote the Hendersons four fifty for the spring cleanup and send it", "remind me to call Maria Friday at two".
- Tell Atlas to do something ("mark that quote sent and approve it", "assign the job to me") and it does it — the cards appear on the talk screen already applied, and Atlas says what happened. When Atlas *suggests* a change you didn't ask for, the card waits: say "yes" or "I confirm" (even after asking a question or two first), "no" to skip it, or tap the card. Anything that goes to a client — an email, a text, a portal message — always waits too: Atlas reads it to you first. Changes that move money or can't be undone always wait for a tap on the card.
- Talk over Atlas, or tap the mark, to interrupt it. Mute at the top pauses the mic; tap Done when you're finished.
- Don't like the voice? Tap Voice at the top of the talk screen to pick a different one — several male and female voices, and an American, British, Australian or Indian accent. The pick is saved on your login, so it follows you between your phone and your computer.
- A conversation uses a few Atlas tokens per minute of talk.
- If the connection drops mid-conversation, or Google ends the session on its side, Atlas reconnects by itself and picks up where you were — you see Reconnecting… for a moment. If it can't get back, it says so; tap the mic to start a fresh one.
- If the live connection can't start, Atlas falls back to taking turns: speak, pause, hear the answer.
If something's not working
It says the microphone is blocked.
The browser or phone remembered a No. On an iPhone: Settings app → WorkBench (or Safari's AA button → Website Settings) → Microphone → Allow. On Android: Settings → Apps → WorkBench → Permissions → Microphone. On a computer: click the lock or sliders icon at the left of the address bar → Microphone → Allow. Then tap Try again on the voice screen.
Atlas hears me but the reply is silent.
Turn your ringer or media volume up; on an iPhone the silent switch mutes it. If the natural voice can't load, Atlas falls back to your device's own voice automatically.
Atlas was slow, misheard me, or got something wrong.
Tap Report a problem at the bottom of the voice screen, or the flag at the top of the chat, say what happened in a sentence and send it. The whole conversation goes with it — what was said, the cards, and the voice timings — so we can see exactly what Atlas did and fix it.