Persistent Issues with Standard Voice Mode & Read Aloud Functionality – Request for Fixes & Improvements

ChatGPT Bugs
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Hello OpenAI Team & Community,

I want to bring attention to some persistent issues with Standard Voice Mode and Read Aloud functionality that have been ongoing for several months. As someone who uses ChatGPT extensively across multiple devices, I’ve noticed that these problems significantly impact usability and the overall experience.

  1. Standard Voice Mode Keeps Disconnecting

Lately, every time I use Standard Voice Mode (not Advanced Voice Mode), the conversation randomly disconnects and interrupts the flow. This issue:
• Occurs on all my devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad).
• Is not an internet issue, as I’ve tested multiple networks.
• Seems to happen more often during longer responses.

This disruption makes it frustrating to maintain a conversation and impacts the usability of the voice feature.

  1. Read Aloud Function is Broken

The Read Aloud function has been malfunctioning for months, and this has been repeatedly raised in the forums. The main issues are:
• It only reads the beginning of messages before stopping.
• It repeats sections instead of progressing properly.
• It randomly disconnects mid-reading.
• It does not allow smooth navigation within the audio (no slider, only 15-second forward/back buttons).

Given that this is a core accessibility and usability feature, I’d really appreciate attention to this.

  1. Suggested Improvements
    • Fix disconnections in Standard Voice Mode to maintain conversation flow.
    • Ensure Read Aloud completes the full message without interruptions or loops.
    • Introduce a slider for Read Aloud to navigate long responses more efficiently.
    • Improve UI for memory management (making it clearer and more user-friendly).

I appreciate all the incredible progress OpenAI is making (e.g., recent memory upgrades). However, core usability issues need consistent attention, even as more advanced features roll out. User experience matters… it’s the small refinements that keep users engaged.

Thank you to the OpenAI team for your work! I love using ChatGPT daily, and I hope these issues can be addressed to improve the experience for everyone.

Would love to hear from others—is anyone else experiencing these issues?

3 Likes
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I’ve been having the same issue for over a week now, read aloud functionality just doesn’t work anymore, it only reads the first part of the message and stops

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I confirm 2. Fails ALWAYS for rather longer texts. Below a certain length, it does not fail. But if it fails, it fails after a few lines. As if the play was interrupted by another process that was still running because it has to deal with a lot of data. Displays a red box “failed to play message”. Very frustrating to be so close from a graal.
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