Voice-Only Mode

Not every agent needs a face. Voice-Only Mode turns off the Huma avatar renderer and replaces it with a lightweight audio visualizer — a decorative animation that pulses with the agent’s speech. Use it for voice-first products, low-bandwidth environments, or when your brand is stronger than any face you could render.

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When to use it

• Voice-first products — IVR replacements, phone-like conversations, screen-off use
• Low-bandwidth or metered networks — the visualizer streams a tiny fraction of what avatar video does
• Brand-forward experiences — center your logo and color instead of a stock face
• Mobile-web — great for interactions where a full avatar would dominate a small screen
• Latency-sensitive edge cases — skipping avatar render removes ~50–100 ms from the pipeline

Voice-only mode uses the same STT / LLM / TTS pipeline as a video agent — only the render layer changes.

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Audio visualizer variants

Voice-only mode ships with six built-in visualizer styles. Each one animates in sync with the agent’s speech. Pick the one that fits your brand. All six use your chosen accent color.

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Customization

Voice-only mode gives you three visual levers: All customization happens in the Studio’s Avatar tab when Voice-Only Mode is toggled on. The values persist on the agent config and apply everywhere the agent is embedded.

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Enabling voice-only mode

In the Studio, open the Avatar tab and toggle Voice-only mode on. Pick a visualizer variant, set the accent color, and optionally add a company logo. Voice-only is stored on the agent’s avatar config — everywhere the agent is embedded (widget, iframe, LiveKit plugin) picks up the setting on the next session.

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Widget SDK support

The @aiteammate/agent-widget React component also accepts an internal audioAvatarVariant prop for one-off overrides at render time. It accepts the same six values ("aura" | "bar" | "grid" | "radial" | "wave" | "earth"). For most cases, configure voice-only on the agent itself so every embed matches — don’t override it per widget instance unless you have a specific reason to.

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Best practices

• Match visualizer to your brand. aura reads soft and premium; bar reads technical and precise; earth reads exploratory. Test a few.
• Pick a bold accent color. The visualizer is the entire UI while the agent speaks — a washed-out color feels flat.
• Add your logo. In voice-only mode there’s no face to anchor the eye — the logo becomes the identity of the experience.
• Test on mobile. Voice-only shines on small screens. Verify your color and logo work at phone size.

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Next steps