How can i add pause to Twilio studio Say/Play widget

Question

I have a say widget

> "Hello ... Thanks"

I've tried add a pause string like twilML to that element like so

> "Hello  <Pause length="10"/> ... Thanks"

but it just speaks out the Pause length="10" section

how can i add a pause to a Say/Play widget ?

Answer 1

According to Twilio documentation on widgets, pauses can be added by placing space separated periods, where 15 of these is equivalent to 1 second delay.

So, the following Text to say would have a 1 second delay between sentences:

Hello, John!
 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Today is a very nice day.

EDIT: this will only work for non-[Polly] voices (Alice, Man, Woman - options in "Message Voice" field in the widget's configuration).

Another alternative to it is using Twilio Functions and adding a Run Function widget to the Flow. For more instructions, follow Twilio's instructions for "Add Delay" (specifically mentioning for using in Studio Flow.

// Description
// Add a delay, useful for using with Twilio Studio Run Function Widget

exports.handler = function (context, event, callback) {
  // Function can run up to 10 seconds (value of delay is milliseconds)

  // Pass in delay as a URL query parameter
  // Example: https://x.x.x.x/<path>?delay=5000
  let delayInMs = event.delay || 5000;

  let timerUp = () => {
    return callback(null, `Timer Up: ${delayInMs}ms`);
  };

  setTimeout(timerUp, delayInMs);
};