---
title: Voice "About to Act" Highlight (voiceActHighlightEnabled)
---

# Voice "About to Act" Highlight

## What it is

When you use voice conversation (Layer 2) and ask the assistant to do something that needs your confirmation - send a message, reply, end a thread, nudge it to continue, restart it, or ask its live agent a question - the assistant speaks a yes/no prompt before doing it. With this feature on, Omniscio ALSO draws a spotlight on the on-screen thread it is about to act on, so you can SEE what you are confirming before you say "yes."

It exists to make voice control trustworthy: the spoken prompt tells you what will happen, and the highlight shows you where. It is purely visual - it never performs the action and never changes the confirmation; it only points.

It is **off by default** and in development. Reveal and enable it at **Settings -> Lab -> Voice "about to act" highlight** (`voiceActHighlightEnabled`).

## Where to find it

There is nothing to click at the moment of use: the spotlight appears on the thread panel in the session view while the assistant waits for your yes or no. The switch that turns it on is in **Settings -> Lab**, as Voice "about to act" highlight; until you flip it, nothing is ever drawn. It only works while Voice conversation itself is on.

## How it behaves

### How to use it

1. Turn on Voice conversation (Layer 2) and this Lab toggle.
2. Start a voice conversation and ask for a confirmed action, for example: "send 'looks good' to the auth thread."
3. The assistant says "You want me to send 'looks good' to Auth. Should I go ahead?" and the auth thread's panel lights up with a spotlight and a short "About to send a message" tip.
4. Say "yes" to run it (the highlight clears and the action happens) or "no" to cancel (the highlight clears, nothing happens).

### What gets highlighted

The spotlight points at the active thread's panel - the work surface you are looking at. If the action does not act on a thread that is on screen (for example, an inbox approval, or asking an agent in a thread you are not currently viewing), no highlight is shown; the spoken confirmation still happens as usual.

### Guarantees

- **Off by default, no surprises.** When the toggle is off, nothing changes - no spotlight is ever drawn and the voice flow behaves exactly as before.
- **Visual only.** The highlight cannot send, end, or change anything. It is drawn during the confirmation window and cleared the moment you answer (or if the window times out).
- **No new AI call.** The highlight is a simple lookup of what the assistant already decided to do; it costs nothing and adds no latency to the AI.
- **Reuses the existing highlight.** It is the same on-screen spotlight Omniscio already uses for guided tips, just triggered by the voice confirmation.

### Limitations

- Only the Layer 2 confirmation flow is covered (the spoken yes/no actions). Plain one-shot voice commands are not highlighted.
- Only the active thread's panel can be spotlighted today; actions on off-screen threads are not highlighted (the spoken confirmation still applies).

## Related

- [voice-l4-ask-agent.md](voice-l4-ask-agent.md) - ask the live agent in a thread (one of the confirmed actions this highlights).
- [voice-report-back.md](voice-report-back.md) - speak an AI prose answer back after a voice command.