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Cortex Chat has two voice controls, and they are independent of each other. Voice input in the composer turns speech into text you can edit before sending. Listen under a finished answer reads that answer aloud. Both are Chat controls: Cortex Code, Cortex Bot and Cortex Design have no equivalent. This page covers how each one behaves, what it does and does not send on your behalf, the limits that apply, and what it means when one of the controls is not there at all.
Voice input in the Chat composer for dictating a message to review before sending.

Interface preview

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The two controls

Each control appears only where the capability behind it is configured. Cortex asks once whether speech-to-text and text-to-speech are available and draws the controls accordingly, so a control you can see is a control that works. Nothing is drawn greyed out, and you will not meet a button that fails when you click it.

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Dictate a message

1

Start recording

Click Voice input in the composer. If the button is not there, dictation is not configured where you are running Cortex.
2

Speak

The button becomes Stop recording while the clip is being captured.
3

Stop and wait for the text

Stop recording. The composer shows Transcribing…, then drops the transcript into the message box as ordinary editable text.
4

Read it, fix it, send it

Correct anything that was misheard and send the message yourself.
Dictation never sends for you. The transcript lands in the composer and stays there until you press send, which is what makes it safe to dictate a long message and then edit it.
Once the clip has been turned into text, the recording itself is not kept. The text in the composer is what survives, and from that point it is an ordinary message like any other.

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Listen to an answer

1

Choose Listen

On a finished answer, choose Listen. If there is no such button, read-aloud is not configured where you are running Cortex.
2

Wait for the audio

The button shows Loading… while the audio is prepared, then playback starts and the button becomes Stop.
3

Stop when you like

Stop ends playback. Starting playback on a second answer stops the first one, so only one answer is ever read aloud at a time.
Read-aloud works on the answer as it stands when you press the button, which is why Listen belongs to a finished answer rather than one still being written. See Streaming and reconnects for the phases that come before it.

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Limits

For everything else, a dictated message counts against your message allowance exactly like a typed one, because by the time it is sent it is a typed one. See Plans and quotas.

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A live voice conversation is not available yet

There is no live, two-way voice mode in Chat today. Talking to Cortex and hearing it answer in the same session is not available, and any path that leads there ends on Voice is not available on this deployment. Dictation and Listen are the two voice features that work.
Use them together if you want something close to a spoken exchange: dictate the question with Voice input, send it, then press Listen on the answer. The difference is that each half is a deliberate action rather than an open microphone, and nothing is recorded between them.

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When a control is missing

A missing mic or a missing Listen button is not a fault on your side, and there is nothing in your own settings to switch on. Each half is configured where Cortex is running, and either can be available without the other. If the mic button is present but your browser never starts recording, the block is usually the browser’s own microphone permission for the site rather than Cortex. Allow the microphone in your browser’s site settings and try again. Interface language is a separate matter from the voice controls and is covered in Language.