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Voice tutoring is not a text tutor reading aloud

What changed when we let students interrupt mid-sentence, and why the board had to keep drawing while they did.

TE

The engineering team

Engineering · 2 April 2026 · 6 min read

Our first voice build was text-to-speech over the existing lesson. Students hated it, politely, by never using it twice.

Interruption is the feature

In a real session the student cuts in at the exact moment they lose the thread. If the tutor finishes its paragraph first, that moment is gone. So barge-in had to be instant. The tutor stops mid-word and the board holds at the current stroke.

The board can't pause

Silence with a frozen board feels broken. While the tutor listens, the board keeps its last step highlighted and the cursor breathing, so the session still feels alive.

Latency budget

  • Under 300ms to acknowledge that you've started speaking
  • Under 900ms to the first word of the reply
  • Under 3s to the first new stroke on the board

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