Auto-Pause After Inactivity

Ever walked away from a meeting and realized hours later that Hedy was still recording? Auto-pause solves this by automatically pausing your session when no speech is detected, so you never have to worry about forgotten recordings again.

What is Auto-Pause?

Auto-pause monitors your session for speech activity and automatically pauses recording when no one has spoken for a configurable period (1-15 minutes). This prevents Hedy from running indefinitely if you forget to stop your session, while also saving processing power and keeping your transcripts focused on actual conversations.

Enabling Auto-Pause

1. Open Settings: Go to the Sessions tab

2. Find Auto-Pause Section: Look for “Auto-pause after inactivity”

3. Toggle On: Switch the toggle to enable the feature

4. Set Duration: Use the slider to choose how many minutes of silence before auto-pause activates (1-15 minutes)

How It Works

When auto-pause is enabled, Hedy continuously monitors for speech during your session:

1. Active Monitoring: During your session, Hedy tracks when speech is detected in the transcription

2. Warning Phase: When no speech is detected for half your configured time, a warning banner appears with a countdown

3. Confirmation Option: You can tap “I’m Still Here” to reset the timer, or “Pause Now” to pause immediately

4. Auto-Pause: If the countdown reaches zero without speech or interaction, the session pauses automatically

5. Notification: You’ll receive a system notification that your session was paused

Resuming a Paused Session

When your session is auto-paused, a dialog appears with two options:

• Resume Session: Continue recording from where you left off

• End Session: Stop the session and save your transcript

If you’re away from your device, you can also resume by opening Hedy from the notification. For the manual controls, see starting, pausing, and ending sessions.

If a session stopped without the warning banner or pause dialog, that’s a different issue. See transcription stopped mid-session.

Voice Activity Detection Requirement

When using on-device transcription (Whisper), auto-pause requires Voice Activity Detection (VAD) to be enabled. VAD helps Hedy accurately detect when speech starts and stops.

If VAD isn’t enabled when you turn on auto-pause, Hedy will prompt you to enable it. You can:

• Enable VAD: Allow Hedy to turn on voice detection for reliable auto-pause functionality

• Not Now: Skip enabling auto-pause for this session

VAD is only required when using on-device Whisper transcription. Cloud-based transcription providers have built-in speech detection.

Best Use Cases

• Forgotten sessions: Never worry about leaving Hedy running after a meeting ends

• Long meetings with breaks: Auto-pause during coffee breaks or intermissions

• All-day recordings: Ideal for conferences or events with gaps between sessions

• Battery conservation: Reduces processing when there’s nothing to transcribe

For long sessions with the screen off, also review the background operation optimization guide so your device doesn’t suspend Hedy.

Pro Tip: Set a shorter auto-pause time (3-5 minutes) for focused meetings, or a longer time (10-15 minutes) for events with natural breaks.