What is Barge-in (Interruption Handling)?
Barge-in is a voice agent's ability to stop speaking the moment a caller starts talking, listen to the interruption, and respond to it, the way a person would, instead of finishing its sentence.
Also known as: interruption handling, talk-over handling
How it works
While the agent speaks, the system keeps listening on the caller's channel. When it detects speech that is more than a cough or background noise, it cuts the outgoing audio, discards the unspoken part of the reply, and treats the interruption as the next turn. The agent should also remember which part of its sentence was actually heard, since a caller who interrupts at 'your balance is' has not heard the amount.
Why it matters
Phone callers interrupt constantly, to correct a detail, to say yes early or to skip a long greeting. Systems without barge-in force people to wait through every sentence, which is the quickest way to make a call feel automated and annoying.
Common mistake
Setting the interruption threshold too sensitive. Noisy streets, a TV or a second speaker nearby then cut the agent off mid-answer for no reason. Good systems separate real speech from noise and acknowledgements like 'hmm' or 'okay', which should not stop the agent.
Where this shows up at Vaami
Interruption handling is part of Vaami's live call behaviour, alongside its sub-300ms end-to-end latency target in production.
See it on a real call.
Hear how a Vaami voice agent handles this on a live conversation in your language and your use case.