Barge-in
Barge-in allows users to interrupt the AI assistant while it's speaking, just like in natural human conversations. Instead of waiting for the assistant to finish, users can interject with new information, correct or clarify their previous statement, redirect the conversation to a different topic, or simply stop the assistant when they've heard enough. This creates a more natural and responsive conversational experience.
The following diagram illustrates the complete barge-in conversation flow:
How Amazon Nova 2 Sonic handles barge-in
Amazon Nova 2 Sonic is designed to handle interruptions gracefully. When the user starts speaking during a response, the system immediately stops generating the current response, maintains full conversational context, sends an interruption signal to the client and begins processing the new user input.
Context Preservation: Even when interrupted, Nova Sonic remembers what was said before the interruption, the topic being discussed, the conversation history and any relevant context from previous turns. This ensures the conversation remains coherent and natural.
Client-side implementation requirements
While Amazon Nova 2 Sonic handles barge-in on the server side, you need to implement client-side logic for a complete experience.
The audio queue challenge: Audio generation is faster than playback speed. This means:
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Nova Sonic generates audio chunks quickly
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Your client receives and queues these chunks
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The client plays them back at normal speaking speed
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When a barge-in occurs, there's already audio queued for playback
Required client-side logic: Your application must handle four key steps:
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Detect the Interruption Signal: Listen for the interruption event from Nova Sonic and react immediately when received.
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Stop Current Playback: Pause the currently playing audio and stop any audio that's mid-playback.
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Clear the Audio Queue: Remove all queued audio chunks and discard any buffered audio from the interrupted response.
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Start New Audio: Begin playing the newly received audio and resume normal playback flow.
