> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://visionagents.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Turn Detection

Turn Detection identifies when a speaker has finished their conversational turn and it's appropriate for an AI to respond. It solves a critical problem in voice AI: respond too early and you interrupt the speaker; wait too long and the conversation feels awkward.

## How It Works

Turn detection analyzes audio through a multi-stage pipeline:

1. **Voice Activity Detection (VAD)**: Detects when someone is speaking
2. **Audio Buffering**: Collects speech segments for analysis
3. **AI Analysis**: Examines speech patterns, content, and context to predict turn completion
4. **Event Emission**: Fires `TurnStartedEvent` when speech begins and `TurnEndedEvent` when the turn is complete

The key insight is distinguishing between "I'm pausing to think" and "I'm done talking"—something simple silence detection can't do.

## Turn Detection vs VAD

|                  | VAD                         | Turn Detection              |
| ---------------- | --------------------------- | --------------------------- |
| **Question**     | "Is someone speaking?"      | "Has the speaker finished?" |
| **Output**       | Speech start/end timestamps | Turn completion signal      |
| **Intelligence** | Simple audio analysis       | Conversational context      |
| **Best for**     | Detecting presence          | Knowing when to respond     |

Vision Agents' turn detection uses VAD under the hood, then applies neural models to determine turn completion.

## Available Plugins

| Plugin                                                | Description                                                              |
| ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| [Smart Turn](/integrations/turn-detection/smart-turn) | Combines Silero VAD, Whisper features, and neural turn completion models |
| [Vogent](/integrations/turn-detection/vogent)         | Neural turn detection with high accuracy prediction                      |

Some STT plugins also include built-in turn detection via VAD, which means no separate plugin is needed:

| STT Plugin                                 | Turn Detection                              |
| ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- |
| [Deepgram](/integrations/stt/deepgram)     | Built-in with `eager_turn_detection` option |
| [ElevenLabs](/integrations/stt/elevenlabs) | Built-in via VAD commit strategy            |

<Tip>
  For Realtime APIs (OpenAI, Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Qwen), turn detection is built-in at the model level—no separate plugin needed.
</Tip>

<Note>
  When an STT plugin provides built-in turn detection, the `Agent` automatically ignores any external `TurnDetector` plugin to prevent conflicts.
</Note>

## Use Cases

* **Voice Assistants**: Respond at the right moment without interrupting
* **Customer Service Bots**: Natural conversation flow with customers
* **Real-time Translation**: Capture complete thoughts before translating
* **Meeting Intelligence**: Identify natural break points for summarization
* **Interview Tools**: AI interviewers that don't interrupt

## Next Steps

* [Interruption Handling](/guides/interruption-handling) — How to use turn detection in your agent (setup, tuning, troubleshooting)
* [Smart Turn](/integrations/turn-detection/smart-turn) — Configure the Smart Turn plugin
* [Vogent](/integrations/turn-detection/vogent) — Alternative turn detection option