Voice Command Task Troubleshooting

Voice command tasks are a powerful feature within Soma and allow users to train and assess cognitive performance using spoken responses rather than screen taps. Because these tasks rely on Apple’s speech recognition and microphone permissions, there are a few important things to understand before interpreting results.

Unlike a standard tapping task, voice command tasks require the device microphone to activate, listen, process the spoken response, and then recognise the word that was spoken. Because of this process, voice command tasks naturally have different timing characteristics than touch-based tasks. A screen tap can occur very quickly, often within a few hundred milliseconds. Spoken responses are different. Words take time to physically say and for the device to recognise. For example, the word “LEFT” typically takes approximately 800-1200 ms to fully speak, depending on the individual, speaking speed, accent, and environment. This means that voice command reaction times will naturally be much slower than touch-based reaction times. Voice command tasks should therefore not be compared directly to touch-based tasks.

One of the most common issues we see occurs at the start of a task. Due to Apple’s microphone permissions and security requirements, the microphone must first activate before it can begin listening for responses. When the microphone becomes active, you will see the orange microphone indicator appear at the top of the screen.

If a user begins speaking before the microphone is fully active, the start of the word may be missed. This can result in:

As a general rule, always wait until the orange microphone indicator appears before speaking.

Voice command tasks have undergone extensive testing across internal development, athlete testing, and research environments. When unusual results are reported, they are most commonly related to microphone activation timing, speech recognition conditions, task familiarity, speaking pace, or response timing rather than a technical issue with the task itself.

If you believe there may be an issue, please provide the task name, the date and time of the session, the device model, and a description of what occurred so our team can investigate further.

Voice command tasks are fundamentally different from touch-based tasks. Speaking takes longer than tapping, and the microphone must be active before responses can be captured. Always wait for the orange microphone indicator before speaking, ensure responses are clear, and remember that slower reaction times are expected when using voice rather than touch.