What is Voice Input Formatted?

When interacting with voice assistants, you might notice terms like "Voice Input Formatted" in call logs or system outputs. This article explains what this means, how it works, and why it's important for delivering clear and natural voice interactions.

Voice Input Formatted is a function that takes raw text from a language model (LLM) and cleans it up so text-to-speech (TTS) provider can read it more naturally. It’s on by default in your assistant’s voice provider settings, because it helps turn things like:

• $42.50 → “forty two dollars and fifty cents,”
• ST → STREET,
• or phone numbers → spaced digits (“1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0”).

If you prefer the raw, unchanged text, you can turn off these transformations, which we’ll show you later.

Log Example

1. Step-by-Step Transformations

When Voice Input Formatted runs, it calls a bunch of helper functions in a row. Each one focuses on a different kind of text pattern. The entire process happens in this order:

1. removeAngleBracketContent
2. removeMarkdownSymbols
3. removePhrasesInAsterisks
4. replaceNewLinesWithPeriods
5. replaceColonsWithPeriods
6. formatAcronyms
7. formatDollarAmounts