Wake Word

Wake word lets you activate Atlas completely hands-free. Say “Hey Atlas” and Atlas starts listening — no button press needed. It’s designed for moments when your hands are busy or you just want a more natural, conversational experience.

Note

Wake word requires a Talk plan or an active free trial.

How It Works

1. Enable wake word in Settings > Voice > Wake Word
2. Accept the one-time prompt to enable continuous listening
3. Say “Hey Atlas” from anywhere while the app is open
4. Atlas starts recording — speak your message
5. After 1.5 seconds of silence, Atlas stops recording and sends your audio for transcription
6. The response arrives in the chat panel (and is spoken aloud if TTS is enabled)

Privacy: What Stays Local

Note

The wake word model runs entirely on your device using an ONNX neural network. Your microphone audio is processed locally at all times. Audio is only sent to the cloud after “Hey Atlas” is detected — continuous background audio is never transmitted.

Here’s exactly what happens at each step:

Step	Where it runs
Listening for “Hey Atlas”	Your device only (local ONNX model)
Recording after wake word	Your device
Transcription of your message	Atlas cloud (OpenAI Whisper)
AI response	Atlas cloud

Setting Up Wake Word

1. Open Settings and go to the Voice section
2. Find Wake Word and toggle it on
3. You’ll see a one-time prompt explaining how continuous listening works — accept it to proceed
4. The app will start listening for “Hey Atlas” in the background

Tip

Wake word works best when Atlas is the focused application. Background listening while using other apps may vary depending on your operating system.

Adjusting Sensitivity

The sensitivity threshold controls how easily the wake word triggers. You can adjust it in Settings > Voice > Wake Word Sensitivity:

Threshold	Behavior
0.3 (lower)	Less sensitive — requires a clearer, closer pronunciation of “Hey Atlas”
0.5 (default)	Balanced — works well for most users in normal conditions
0.8 (higher)	More sensitive — triggers more easily, but may have more false activations

If Atlas activates when you didn’t say the wake word, lower the threshold. If it misses your voice too often, raise it.

Pausing Wake Word

If you need to temporarily stop wake word listening — for example, during a meeting or when playing audio — you can pause it from the Voice settings without fully disabling it. Resume it when you’re ready.

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Next: Text-to-Speech