Botframework-webchat: Need audible equivalent for typing indicator sent by bot

[mmalaiarasan-conga]

Feature Request

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Currently when a user uses speech input method - webchat speaks the response sent from the bot. But the typing indicator is not marked a speakable activity and it is ignored when a bot sends a typing indicator to user in a voice conversation.

Describe the suggestion or request in detail

For a speech enabled conversation, instead of ignoring incoming typing indicators from bot, there can be a customizable audible equivalent (some music) that can be played to user until the typing indicator is turned off.

Describe alternatives you have considered
Tried sending an audio attachment from bot instead of typing indicators in case of a voice conversation. But the purpose is not solved because of the UI and the fact that the audio does not stop on the next incoming message from bot.

Additional context

if we want to use webchat to have a true voice conversation without the user having to look at the screen, this is absolutely necessary.

[Enhancement]

[corinagum]

I think there are a number of workarounds you can consider without needing wait for a Web Chat update.

1. On the bot side, send an audible typing indicator with the typing activity or as a part of the group. On a high level:
   
   
   
   • Send an activity with the speak property set to "Please wait, calculating"
   
   
   • Send the typing activity
   
   
   • Repeat as necessary until bot's final response is ready
     
     You could also try out whether or not a speak property on a typing activity will work, though I suspect it will not.
   
   
2. On the client side, use Web Chat's middleware samples to create a wrapper around a typing activity. This wrapper will play the designated sound, and will repeat whenever a new typing activity is received. Alternatively, you can add logic that will only play the sound on the first received typing indicator in a group.

I can see this being implemented as a sample for Web Chat, but as it is I don't think this is something that our team would immediately incorporate into the main project. I will add this as a sample request to our backlog, and if any customers are inclined, please feel free to give a stab at this (and share here!)

[mmalaiarasan-conga]

@corinagum thank you for the response,

• speak property on typing indicator is ignored.
• send a msg activity with speak text like 'please wait' - will not work efficiently since sometimes typing indicators show up just for a second, while sometimes up to a few tens of seconds and sending the text and reading it aloud for smaller indication will only delay our actual response.
• I am trying to write a wrapper over typing indicators and not very successful so for.

Having a sample for this will be very useful

Thank you

[cwhitten]

Hello. We'll close this as we have no plans to implement a sample that demonstrates this. See https://github.com/microsoft/BotFramework-WebChat/issues/2567#issuecomment-550577922 for detail on how to achieve this.