Humans expect conversation turn gaps of ~200ms regardless of language, PNAS study finds
lluisantoni · reddit · 2026-10-19
An author who builds routing infrastructure at Kottos AI cites a 2009 PNAS paper on the time between conversational turns — a key parameter for voice agents. Two standout findings: 1) the mode is at most 200ms, far faster than most current voice agents respond; 2) the gap barely depends on the language spoken, making it a cross-lingual universal.
Implication for voice agent builders: to sound natural, response latency must approach the 200ms range, which is why turn prediction and interruption handling are central problems in voice infrastructure.
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