When start_speaker: “agent” is set on a conversation flow, the agent starts speaking as soon as Retell receives the carrier SIP 200 OK (“answered”) signal. On certain carriers and phone configurations, this signal fires several seconds — sometimes 15–20+ seconds — before the human physically picks up the handset. The result is the agent delivers its entire opening message into a still-ringing phone, and when the human finally answers they hear nothing (or catch the tail end).
Hey @catalina1
For carriers that signal 200 OK before the human actually picks up, use the Pause before speaking setting (Global Settings → Call Settings): when the agent speaks first, it will wait the configured duration before speaking — explicitly intended “to handle scenarios when user is still picking up the phone.”
Alternatively, switch “who speaks first” to the user, or have the agent start with a short probe phrase rather than the full opening.
Thank You
Hi @mark1 , thank you for your response. How much time do you suggest to set in the ‘Pause before speaking’?
And can we edit that via API?
Hey @catalina1 you’ll need to tune it based on your carriers’ early-answer behavior
Okay and what about editing it via API