At rest, the orb is a circular button with a microphone icon, fixed in a corner of your site. Pressing it opens a small panel with your business’s name, the permanent AI notice (section 5) and, depending on where the call is, one of these states — a closed vocabulary, with no invented or in-between states:
| State | What the visitor sees |
|---|---|
| Idle | Just the orb, no panel open. |
| Requesting microphone | “Requesting microphone access…” — while the browser asks for permission. |
| Connecting | “Connecting…” — the call’s room is being prepared. |
| Listening / Thinking / Speaking | An animated mini-orb (based on the real audio level, never simulated) with the text “Listening…”, “Thinking…” or “Speaking…”, captions (section 4), and the mute and hang up buttons. |
| Call ended | “Call ended” (or a specific reason if the server confirms it — section 6). |
| Error | An honest message based on the cause (section 3.1) and a “Retry” button. |
Note — States verified so far
Idle, Requesting microphone, Connecting, honest closure (section 3.1) and error with Retry are verified and captured in a real environment. “Listening”, “Thinking” and “Speaking” — and the captions from section 4 — depend on real audio (speech recognition and response) being active; their captures are completed once verified with audio.
Pressing Esc with the panel open closes it the same as the close button in the header — it hangs up the call if one was in progress (section 6, full accessibility in section 7).
3.1. No microphone, out of plan, or a real error
Section titled “3.1. No microphone, out of plan, or a real error”The orb never simulates that voice works when it doesn’t:
- The visitor denies microphone permission: the panel shows “We couldn’t access your microphone. Check your browser permissions and try again.” next to “Retry” and, where it applies, the link or alternative contact from section 5.
- Your channel is out of plan, out of minutes, or paused (Manual 62 · Plan capabilities and limits): the orb stays visible but disabled, with the neutral message “Voice not available right now / Try again later.” — never an internal reason or plan data.
- A technical failure starting or keeping the call: “The call couldn’t start. Try again in a few seconds.” or “The call connection was lost. Try again.”, both with “Retry”.
- The browser doesn’t support voice (very uncommon): “Voice isn’t available in this browser.”