voice activity

Definition

Voice activity (VAD, voice activity detection) is a voice-chat mode that auto-opens the microphone when the system detects speech. VAD is convenient but unreliable: thresholds either miss quiet speech or trigger on background noise. For high-quality comms, push-to-talk beats VAD; for casual party chat, VAD is acceptable.

Example

"Lower your VAD threshold — we keep losing your callouts." The teammate's voice activity threshold is too high, cutting off speech.

Related terms

• push to talk
• voice chat
• comms