We are using Twilio for our phone number and every time a call comes in to our AI, the first couple of words are cut off. It's like the phone gets answered and the AI starts speaking but the words are cut off. Is there a way to delay the agent or a way to add an extra ring in Twilio so the agent can actually be connected when the call starts?

Hi there! 👋 Sorry to hear you're experiencing issues with cut-off words. While I couldn't find specific information about adding an extra ring in Twilio, I can definitely help with several methods to delay your AI agent's response to prevent those first words from being cut off. Here are several effective solutions you can implement: ### 1. Adjust

startSpeakingPlan.waitSeconds

One of the simplest solutions is to increase the wait time before your AI starts speaking:

javascript
const assistant = {
  firstMessageMode: 'assistant-speaks-first',
  startSpeakingPlan: {
    waitSeconds: 2 // Increase this value (default is 0.4 seconds)
  }
  // other configurations
};

According to [Discord discussions](https://discord.com/channels/1211482211119796234/1211483291191083018/threads/1343915991670853654), increasing this value from the default 0.4 seconds to something like 0.8 or 2 seconds can help ensure the connection is fully established before the AI begins speaking. ### 2. Use a Webhook to Intercept Calls You can set up a webhook endpoint to intercept the call and introduce a delay before forwarding it to Vapi using TwiML, as mentioned in [Discord discussions](https://discord.com/channels/1211482211119796234/1211483291191083018/threads/1343397177182912553). ### 3. Use a Twilio Conference Another approach is to place the caller in a Twilio conference (on hold) to delay the connection to the AI:

xml
app.post("/conference", (req, res) => {
  const VoiceResponse = twilio.twiml.VoiceResponse;
  const twiml = new VoiceResponse();

  // Put the caller into a conference
  const dial = twiml.dial();
  dial.conference(
    {
      startConferenceOnEnter: true,
      endConferenceOnExit: true,
    },
    "my_conference_room"
  );

  return res.type("text/xml").send(twiml.toString());
});

This approach is documented in the [Vapi documentation on call handling](https://docs.vapi.ai/phone-calling/on-hold-specialist-transfer).

Hey! To help track down this issue, could you share: - The call ID This would really help us figure out what went wrong!