OpenHuman Voice Setup Guide — Speech & ElevenLabs Integration

OpenHuman supports voice conversations out of the box. You can speak to your AI assistant and hear its responses through high-quality text-to-speech. This guide walks you through the setup.

Built-in Speech Recognition

OpenHuman uses your device's microphone for voice input. On macOS and Windows, it leverages system speech APIs — no additional setup required.

Enabling Voice Input

Click the microphone icon in the chat input bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+M (configurable in settings). Grant microphone permission when prompted.

Text-to-Speech with ElevenLabs

For AI voice responses, OpenHuman supports both system TTS and ElevenLabs — one of the most realistic AI voice generators available.

Step 1: Get an ElevenLabs API Key

Step 2: Configure in OpenHuman

Add to config.toml:

[voice] enabled = true tts_provider = "elevenlabs" elevenlabs_api_key = "your-api-key-here" elevenlabs_voice_id = "21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM"  # Rachel voice [voice.input] enabled = true language = "en-US" auto_detect = true

Choosing a Voice

ElevenLabs offers dozens of voices across different styles. Browse them at elevenlabs.io/voice-library. Popular choices:

Rachel (21m00Tcm4TlvDq8ikWAM) — warm, friendly, great for general use
Domi (LcfcDJNUP1GQjkzn1xwf) — energetic, engaging
Bella (oWAxZx4EsTV5H7ftj) — soft, natural
Antoni (VR6AewLTigWG4x1GB) — deep, authoritative male voice

Using System TTS (No API Key)

If you don't want to use ElevenLabs, you can use your system's built-in TTS:

[voice] enabled = true tts_provider = "system"

Voice Commands

Once voice is enabled, you can use hands-free commands:

"Hey OpenHuman, what's on my calendar today?"
"Summarize my unread emails"
"Remind me to call John at 3 PM"
"Open my GitHub PRs"

Troubleshooting

Microphone not detected

Check your system privacy settings — OpenHuman needs microphone permission in System Preferences (macOS) or Settings (Windows).

ElevenLabs voice not playing

Verify your API key is correct and has available characters. ElevenLabs free tier includes 10,000 characters/month.