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Introducing advanced voice mode

Introducing advanced voice mode

OpenAI’s highly anticipated Advanced Voice Mode brings even more natural conversations to ChatGPT than the previous voice mode the chatbot supported.

Advanced Voice Mode allows you to pause the AI ​​while you change your questions and answers to match what ChatGPT has just told you. It is very similar to the way human-to-human conversations occur. The enhanced voice mode also gains a more human tonality, making the AI ​​more lifelike than ever.

It took several months for OpenAI to release the enhanced language mode. Therefore, with one major exception, the first ChatGPT users to receive it were Plus and Teams subscribers worldwide. Like me, users in the European Union cannot take advantage of ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode as OpenAI is more cautious about the timing of new features in the region due to the EU’s stricter regulations.

Fast forward to late Tuesday and OpenAI announced that it was rolling out Advanced Voice Mode to ChatGPT Enterprise, Edu and Team users worldwide. More importantly, ChatGPT Free users will also get “a first look at advanced mode.” The EU is still excluded from the rollout.

OpenAI hosted its DevDey 2024 event on Tuesday. The focus of the event was to make ChatGPT access more affordable for developers and expand the AI ​​tools developers can use for apps. This made DevDay significantly less exciting for regular users than last year’s event, but that’s understandable.

OpenAI wants to significantly increase sales. A recent report suggested that a price increase for ChatGPT Plus could be in order this year. But that may not be enough to achieve company goals. This is where the ChatGPT APIs can come in handy, allowing developers to integrate AI tools into their own apps. That’s what DevDay 2024 was all about.

Interestingly, one of the features announced by OpenAI was a new real-time API that allows developers to integrate AI voice capabilities into their apps, including support for Enhanced Voice Mode. Communicating naturally with more apps is certainly a feature I want down the road, so the real-time API is something to keep an eye on. However, it will take a while for apps to start deploying.

As for the support of enhanced voice mode for ChatGPT Free users, OpenAI announced this on its X account. Some ChatGPT Free users have discovered that their updated mobile apps have the new voice mode and are sharing screenshots on Reddit.

This is a great feature to try out, but here lies the big downside. With ChatGPT Free you only get 15 minutes of Advanced Voice Mode per month. For higher limits, you’ll need to opt for a Plus subscription, which is priced at $20/month and is rumored to go up to $22/month soon.

It’s also not surprising that Advanced Voice Mode is available for the free tier. OpenAI could convert additional users to a paid subscription. But Google also released Gemini Live generally for Android, which corresponds to Advanced Voice Mode.

OpenAI also said it will keep ChatGPT Free and Plus users in the EU “up to date.” This means that the extended language mode is still not used.

Everyone else will need to update their apps to get Advanced Voice Mode functionality out of the box.