Been a plus user since the beginning and Android app was working fine until a couple days ago when I noticed there’s no longer the hold to talk feature. The headphone icon in the bottom right is still there but now when I click it, it just says “listening” but there is no option to hold to talk.
The strange part though is that when I log out of my paid account and log back in with a free account, the hold to talk feature is there.
I hope openai doesn’t decide to permanently disable the hold to talk feature. I used it all the time. It’s super obnoxious without it because I can no longer finish a long complex question without it cutting me off.
Android app version is 1.2024.131.
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same for me 
this has to be one of the most idiotic “improvements” they’ve made, I mean do they have anybody in the design department at least average iq? what sort of an update is it when long term paid customers have to sign out of their paid account to access a feature that’s now only available in the free account when that feature is an extremely important in allowing one to gather their thoughts while constructing a long form question that has some level of complexity that requires a pause here or there? this new ‘improvement’ has made the app incredibly annoying as there’s no way to stop it from just barging in after a relatively short pause with a ton of useless info because it didn’t hear the full question !! moronic doesn’t even begin to cover this ‘improvement’
It is annoying indeed.
About a week or so ago, mine actually starting working normally again (ie when I clicked the headphones app, it would take me to the screen with the big white circle that I could press and hold to talk and have pauses without it sending off my speech until I lifted my thumb from the white circle).
Unfortunately, I tried it today and it’s no longer working. When I press headphones, it still takes me to same screen with the big circle (however now the circle is gray) and says “Hold for manual control”, and when I press and hold the big circle, it stays gray and does not have the previous behavior where when you would press and hold the circle, a rotating outer ring would appear around the big circle indicating that it is safe to pause during your speech and it will still listen until you “Release to send”. However, after I start talking (with my thumb still pressing the circle) it DOES then show that rotating outer ring and says “Release to send” below however if I pause for 1 second or more, it thinks I’m done talking and sends my speech off to the servers. So basically even though the UI appears as if it will allow the hold to talk feature, it doesn’t actually provide that functionality when I’m pressing and holding.
Tried clearing app cache/data, logout and login, uninstall/install app. Nothing has helped.
I see that my Android ChatGPT app version is currently 1.2024.157. I’m not totally sure of the timing of when things stopped working and when the app on my phone updated to this current version so idk if upgrading to this current version is what broke the functionality or not. It could’ve broken independent of app version.
I hope openAI does not decide to remove the hold to talk functionality permanently as it adds tremendous value to the app.
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Yes I’m on the same version 1.2024.157 and its been exactly the same experience that you laid out here. I can’t tell you how annoyed I was at this decision by open AI to remove this feature for paying customers as it’s obviously not a bug and instead a feature that somebody who’s paid to think about beneficial features thought yeah let’s ditch completely so we can use the screen to show the text that’s being read out loud, instead of thinking lets simply make the button smaller but leave all the functionality! One of the reasons for my frustration is that I work with people who have had some level of brain damage whether from an accident or disease and one of the most useful features of chatgpt for these people was that they could practice speaking with the model for hours per day where they are having a real conversation about a topic which forces them to think conceptually and then they are able to very slowly with lots of pauses put their concepts into structured sentences by speaking them out loud thus re-training the link between their cognitive system and their speech centres! fortunately this Hold to talk feature is still available on the free version which I had to downgrade to despite the fact that am a paid customer since the start! This is a perfect example of form over function thinking only in terms of aesthetics rather than use cases, anybody that would spend even a few moments thinking about the functionality of speech would realize just how critically important a Hold to talk feature is to many people, especially those that have been unlucky enough to have sustained damage to their brain where they are no longer able to string sentences together in a single unbroken fluid stream! I really hope someone at openAI see’s this message and realizes that pulling this feature is one of the worst ideas they have had since the companies inception it literally makes NO SENSE whatsoever
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