claude voice mode not working

The voice input and read-aloud features in the Claude mobile application provide a hands-free way to interact with the assistant. When the voice engine fails, you may encounter silent responses, frozen audio waveforms, or direct microphone error prompts.

Use this troubleshooting sequence to fix voice-related bugs on your iOS or Android device.

Grant system microphone permissions

If Claude cannot hear your prompts, the app likely lacks the correct system-level permissions. Open your device Settings app, navigate to the application list, and select Claude. Ensure that the microphone toggle is switched on. If it is already enabled, toggle it off and back on to force the system to register the permission.

Check device audio routing and volume

Your phone may be routing the audio output to a silent external device, such as a Bluetooth headset or smart speaker in another room. Turn off your device's Bluetooth temporarily to force the audio through the internal speaker. Also, verify that your physical volume is turned up and that your device is not set to silent or do-not-disturb mode.

Force close and restart the mobile app

Background memory conflicts can freeze the audio synthesis engine. Force close the Claude application by swiping up from the app switcher, then relaunch it. If the app remains unresponsive or fails to launch after doing this, read our guide on what to do when the Claude App Stuck Loading.

Clear the voice engine cache

Corrupted temporary files can cause speech playback to stutter or fail. On Android, go to Settings > Apps > Claude > Storage, and tap Clear Cache. On iOS, you can clear temporary data by offloading the app via Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Claude > Offload App, and then reinstalling it from the App Store.

Toggle cellular data and Wi-Fi connections

Voice recognition and text-to-speech synthesis require a continuous, high-speed data stream to Anthropic's voice processing servers. If your connection drops packets, the voice session will timeout. Toggle aeroplane mode on for ten seconds to reset your network connection, or switch from weak Wi-Fi to cellular data.