# My Retell Agent stops speaking as soon as it initiates the tool calling

**URL:** <https://community.retellai.com/t/my-retell-agent-stops-speaking-as-soon-as-it-initiates-the-tool-calling/3593>\
**Category:** Support Help\
**Tags:** agent-performance\
**Created:** [September 3, 2026, 1:42pm UTC](https://community.retellai.com/t/my-retell-agent-stops-speaking-as-soon-as-it-initiates-the-tool-calling/3593 "2026-09-03T13:42:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![megh.shah](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/user_avatar/community.retellai.com/megh.shah/32/753_2.png) [@megh.shah](https://community.retellai.com/u/megh.shah)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2026, 1:42pm UTC](https://community.retellai.com/t/my-retell-agent-stops-speaking-as-soon-as-it-initiates-the-tool-calling/3593/1 "2026-09-03T13:42:14Z")

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![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/uploads/retell1/original/2X/d/d68779d250d79a8133cdc29bbb364502bb6831a2.png)

I am currently using some custom tools for my Ai agent, the ai agent stops speaking right after it tries to do the tool calling and starts only after we speak from the other end. We are testing on the local environment using Ngrok as tunnel and we are in India. We have also, unchecked the speak after execution but still it does that, how can I get rid of this.

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**Author:** ![mark1](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex008/user_avatar/community.retellai.com/mark1/32/2524_2.png) [@mark1](https://community.retellai.com/u/mark1)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2026, 1:52pm UTC](https://community.retellai.com/t/my-retell-agent-stops-speaking-as-soon-as-it-initiates-the-tool-calling/3593/2 "2026-09-03T13:52:50Z")

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Hello @megh.shah

If your local server (via ngrok from India) is slow to respond, the agent will remain silent while waiting for the function to return. Nothing will be spoken until the response is received or the request times out.

Disabling **“Talk After Action Completed”** only prevents the agent from speaking the result afterwards; it does not affect the silence while the function is running.

**“Talk While Waiting”** is what addresses this. Since it is currently unchecked, please enable it so the agent can play a short filler message, such as “Let me look that up for you”, while the function is executing.

Also, if your endpoint takes longer to respond due to the local server, ngrok, and cross-region latency, make sure the **Timeout (ms)** is set high enough. Otherwise, the request may time out before your endpoint returns a response.

So, please:

1. Enable **Talk While Waiting**.
2. Check that the **Timeout (ms)** value is sufficient for your ngrok round trip.

Best Regards.