Talk to Centrus

Every chat you start in the web app has two voice buttons at the left of the message bar, and every answer from Centrus has a play button. They do three different jobs.

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John MartinTechnical09 Oct 10:44

Riverside House plant roomThe next planned visit is the quarterly boiler...

John MartinTechnical08 Oct 16:20

Zone 3 detector 14 faultStart at the detector head and its base...

John MartinSOPs08 Oct 07:50

Gas Safe RAMS for Mill LaneHere is the RAMS template, filled in for...

John MartinPricing03 Oct 10:21

Out of hours call-out ratesOut of hours attendance is charged at £145.00...

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

last message sent: less than a minute ago

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

Worked · 3 steps

The Riverside House boiler O&M manual gives 1 to 1.5 bar when the system is cold. If the gauge reads below 1 bar, top it up through the filling loop under the boiler to about 1.2 bar, then check the pressure relief valve for leaks.

Sources:

• • Riverside House boiler O&M manual.pdf

10:42

4

2

3Type a message...

Centrus may make mistakes. Check important info.

1. 1Chat, in the menu on the left.
2. 2The microphone turns what you say into text in the message box, ready for you to check and send.
3. 3Voice mode, the sound-wave icon, starts a spoken conversation with Centrus.
4. 4The play button reads an answer aloud.

Dictation suits a single question you want to check before it goes, such as one with a site name or fault code in it. Voice mode suits a run of questions when your hands are busy: walking a plant room with a torch in one hand, or parked up between jobs. The play button is for listening to an answer that is already in the chat.

The voice buttons only work in chats you started. In a chat someone has shared with you they are greyed out, and WhatsApp, Teams and agent chats have no message bar at all. Settings and some messages call Voice mode Live; it is the same feature.

The first time you click the microphone or Voice mode, your browser asks whether app.centrus.ai can use your microphone. Allow it, or Centrus cannot hear you. Most browsers remember your answer for the site, so you are asked once.

app.centrus.ai/app/chat

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

last message sent: 2 minutes ago

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

2Type a message...

app.centrus.ai wants to

Use your microphones

Allow while visiting the site1

Allow this time

Never allow

1. 1Allow the microphone. Chrome offers Allow while visiting the site or Allow this time; other browsers word it differently.
2. 2The microphone turns red as soon as you click it, while the browser waits for your answer.

If you chose Never allow by mistake, dictation shows Microphone permission is required to use this service, try again and Voice mode shows Microphone access is blocked. Allow the microphone for the site in your browser's settings, usually reached from the icon at the left of the web address, then try again. On a phone, also check that the browser app is allowed to use the microphone in the phone's own settings.

1. 1Click in the message box where the words should go. Anything already typed stays, and dictation is added at the cursor.
2. 2Click the microphone. It turns red and pulses while it listens.
3. 3Speak your message. In most browsers the words appear in the box as you speak.
4. 4Click the microphone again to stop.
5. 5Read the message through, correct anything misheard, then press Enter or click Send.

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

last message sent: 5 minutes ago

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

Worked · 3 steps

The Riverside House boiler O&M manual gives 1 to 1.5 bar when the system is cold. If the gauge reads below 1 bar, top it up through the filling loop under the boiler to about 1.2 bar, then check the pressure relief valve for leaks.

Sources:

• • Riverside House boiler O&M manual.pdf

10:42

1

The boiler at Riverside House is showing F28 again, what should I check before I call it in

2

3

Centrus may make mistakes. Check important info.

1. 1The microphone, red while it listens. Click it again to stop.
2. 2Your words, added to the box as you speak. The last few can change as the browser settles on them.
3. 3Send. Nothing is sent until you press it.

Dictation never sends anything by itself, so you can always check the words first. That matters with site names, part numbers and fault codes, which speech recognition can mishear. Dictating uses no message credits; the message you send is charged as usual.

Do not type while the microphone is on. Each update rewrites the message from the point where dictation started, so anything typed in the meantime can be lost. In most browsers, clicking in the message box stops dictation, so click there when you are ready to edit.

How the words reach the box depends on your browser:

• Chrome, Edge and Safari have speech recognition built in, and the words appear as you speak.
• Firefox and other browsers record what you say instead. Nothing appears while you speak and Send stays greyed out. When you click the microphone to stop, the recording is turned into text and the whole message appears at once.

Built-in recognition listens for English. In Firefox and other browsers the recording is transcribed afterwards, which also copes with other languages. If you pause for a long time, the browser can stop listening while the microphone still shows red. If new words stop appearing, click the microphone to stop it, then click it again to carry on.

Voice mode is a spoken conversation. You ask out loud, Centrus looks the answer up in the chat, using the chat's tags, documents and connected systems, then reads the answer back to you. You do not need to touch the screen between questions.

1. 1Open a chat whose tags cover what you want to ask about, or start a new one.
2. 2Click Voice mode, the sound-wave icon beside the microphone. On a phone it is in the tools menu.
3. 3Allow the microphone if your browser asks. The screen shows Connecting, then a chime plays and it changes to Listening.
4. 4Ask your question in your own words, as you would ask a colleague.
5. 5Wait while Centrus shows Checking, then listen while it shows Speaking. When it finishes, it is listening again, so ask your next question.
6. 6Click End when you have finished.

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

last message sent: less than a minute ago

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

1

Listening

2

Mute3

End4

1. 1The orb grows and shrinks with your voice while Centrus listens, and with Centrus's voice while it speaks.
2. 2What Centrus is doing: Connecting, Listening, Checking, Speaking or Muted.
3. 3Mute stops Centrus hearing you. Click Unmute to carry on.
4. 4End finishes the conversation and plays a closing chime.

While Voice mode is on, the message bar is hidden and the chat shows faintly behind the orb, where you can still scroll through it. The orb takes your organisation's brand colours, so it may not be blue.

Voice mode is greyed out while Centrus is still writing an answer, and when your organisation has fewer than 2 message credits left.

• Connecting: Centrus is setting up the conversation. If your browser asks for the microphone, it waits here until you answer.
• Listening: your turn to speak. Centrus is set to ignore coughs, music and nearby conversation, though a loud site can still be picked up.
• Checking: Centrus has passed your question to the chat and is waiting for the answer.
• Speaking: Centrus is reading the answer to you.
• Muted: you clicked Mute, and Centrus cannot hear you until you click Unmute.

Centrus decides which things need looking up. Greetings, small talk and its own questions to check what you meant are handled in the conversation. Anything about your documents, jobs, email, calendar or other connected systems goes to the chat, so the answer comes from your organisation's information rather than a guess.

Centrus looks up one question at a time. If you ask something new while it is still checking, it tells you it is still looking that up. Wait for the first answer, then ask again. If your browser stops Centrus's voice from playing, a Play assistant audio button appears under the status; click it to hear the answer.

Each question Centrus looks up is added to the chat as your message, followed by Centrus's full written answer with its sources, as if you had typed the question. When the conversation ends you have a written record of what you asked and what came back, which you can read again, copy into a job note or share.

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

last message sent: less than a minute ago

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

Your question, as Centrus heard it

The Riverside House boiler O&M manual gives 1 to 1.5 bar when the system is cold. If the gauge reads below 1 bar, top it up through the filling loop under the boiler to about 1.2 bar, then check the pressure relief valve for leaks.

Sources:

• • Riverside House boiler O&M manual.pdf

10:42

When is the next PPM visit due at Riverside House?

10:44

The next planned visit is the quarterly boiler service on 21/10/2026, booked for Dylan Hughes at 08:30.

Sources:

• • Riverside House PPM schedule 2026.xlsx

10:44

The full written answer

Type a message...

Centrus may make mistakes. Check important info.

Said aloud, not saved

Heard and spoken, but never written into the chat

You

Morning, Centrus.

Centrus

Morning. What do you need?

Centrus

Let me check that for you.

Centrus

The spoken answer, read from the written one

You

Thanks, that's all.

• Your question is saved as Centrus understood it. It keeps your wording but drops asides and background talk, and it is cut off at 500 characters. Check it, because a misheard site name or code shows up here.
• The written answer is the full one. The spoken version is read from it with tables, lists and links stripped out, and a long answer is cut short after about 1,500 characters. Look at the chat for figures and tables.
• Not everything is saved. Greetings, thanks, Centrus's questions back to you and the spoken replies themselves are not written into the chat, and no recording of the conversation is added to it.
• Spoken questions use the chat's settings. They search the chat's tags, and the web if web search is switched on for the chat. The reasoning setting and the image button are not used for spoken questions.

Click Mute when you need to talk to someone without Centrus listening, and Unmute to carry on. Click End to finish. Voice mode also ends when you open another chat, leave the Chat page, or reload or close the tab.

A Voice mode conversation lasts up to 15 minutes, and nothing on screen counts the time until the last minute:

• At 10 minutes, a notice reads 5 minutes remaining.
• At 13 minutes, a notice reads 2 minutes remaining.
• From 14 minutes, a countdown shows near the top of the chat.
• At 15 minutes, Voice mode ends with Live session ended after 15 minutes. Click Voice mode again to start a new conversation in the same chat.

Voice mode can also end early. If your organisation runs out of message credits during the conversation, it ends with Live has ended because there are not enough message credits left. If the connection to Centrus fails, it closes, sometimes with Live has ended.

Both voice buttons work in the browser on a phone. On screens narrower than 768 pixels, which covers phones and some small tablets, the tools fold into one menu button at the left of the message bar. Tap it to open the tools: the microphone is at the top, with Voice mode under it.

09:41

Centrus

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

Worked · 3 steps

The Riverside House boiler O&M manual gives 1 to 1.5 bar when the system is cold. If the gauge reads below 1 bar, top it up through the filling loop under the boiler to about 1.2 bar, then check the pressure relief valve for leaks.

Sources:

• • Riverside House boiler O&M manual.pdf

10:42

1

2

Type a message...

Centrus may make mistakes. Check important info.

1. 1The menu button, which holds all the tools on a phone.
2. 2The microphone, for dictation, with Voice mode under it. The menu stays open while the microphone listens, so tap it again to stop.

On a phone, Voice mode fills the chat, with Mute and End under the orb.

09:41

Centrus

John Martin

Riverside House plant room

Technical

What should the boiler pressure be at Riverside House when the system is cold?

10:42

Speaking

Mute

EndTap End to finish

Keep Centrus open on screen while you talk. If you switch to another app or the screen locks, Centrus's voice can stop, and it picks up again when you come back. Switching away does not end the conversation, so tap End when you have finished.

Do not use Voice mode while driving. Pull over and park before you start a conversation.

Voice mode has 13 voices with different accents. Centrus speaks British English in all of them; the voice changes how it sounds, not the language. Vesper, a British voice, is the default and is marked RECOMMENDED.

1. 1Open Settings. It opens on the Account tab.
2. 2Under Personal AI Settings, open Personal Live voice and choose a voice.
3. 3Click the play button beside the list to hear a short sample. Click it again to stop.
4. 4Click Save changes at the foot of the form.

Use organisation Live voice, at the top of the list, follows your organisation's choice. Admins set that on Settings, AI Model: click Show advanced, choose Organisation Live voice, then click Save changes. See AI Model for the rest of that tab.

The voices are Vesper (British), Marin (English), Quartz and Ripple (Australian), Willow and Stone (Irish), Gleam and Meridian (North American), Delta and Cinder (Southern US), Bossa and Tempo (Brazilian Portuguese) and Beacon (Filipino). A new choice applies from the next conversation you start. The voice only affects Voice mode: the play button on answers always uses the same standard voice.

Every answer from Centrus has a blue play button beside the time. Click it to hear the answer read out, for example to listen to a long procedure while you work.

• Play message starts reading. A spinner shows for a moment while the audio is prepared.
• While it reads, the button becomes a stop button, Stop playing. Click it to stop.
• If the answer cannot be played, you see Failed to play text. Please try again.

The whole answer is read, so tables and long lists can sound awkward. Reading aloud uses no message credits, and it works in any chat you can open, including chats shared with you and WhatsApp and Teams chats.

Dictation, the play button and voice samples in Settings use no message credits. Voice mode is charged for its time, and each question it looks up is charged as a normal message.

• Voice mode time costs 2 message credits when the conversation starts and 2 more at the end of every full minute, so each minute or part of a minute costs 2. A conversation of four and a half minutes uses 10 for its time.
• Each question looked up costs what it would if you typed it, which depends on the chat's AI model. With GPT-5.6 Terra, the recommended model, that is 2 credits. See Choose the AI model.

Voice mode needs at least 2 message credits left to start. If the credits run out part-way, a question is not looked up and Centrus says there are not enough message credits left. Voice mode uses the same message credits as typed chat; see Message credits.

On WhatsApp there is no dictation or Voice mode. Record a voice note to Centrus instead, as you would to a colleague. Centrus sends back what it heard, then answers as if you had typed the question. Setting up WhatsApp and the size limit for voice notes are covered in Message Centrus on WhatsApp.

Microsoft Teams does not read voice messages, so type your questions there. See Chat on Microsoft Teams.

• Voice mode lasts 15 minutes at most. Start it again to carry on.
• Voice mode needs 2 message credits left to start, and stops when they run out.
• Only in your own chats. The voice buttons are greyed out in chats shared with you and in a chat whose tag has been deleted. WhatsApp, Teams and agent chats have no message bar.
• One question at a time. Voice mode waits for each answer before it looks up the next, and it is greyed out while an answer is being written.
• Spoken questions are saved in up to 500 characters, and spoken answers are cut short after about 1,500. The full answer is always in the chat.
• English. Dictation in Chrome, Edge and Safari listens for English, and Voice mode always replies in British English.
• Voice mode stops when you open another chat, leave the Chat page, or reload or close the tab.

These are the messages the voice features show, word for word:

If you see Could not start voice, check that the chat still has a tag and that your organisation has message credits left, then try again. In Firefox and other browsers that record dictation, a failed transcription reads Could not transcribe audio, try again... with three dots at the end.