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Even with WholeWord speech recognition installed, callers still have the option of responding to prompts with touchtones rather than speaking. Speech recognition accepts either speech or touchtone input in response to a prompt. Talkoff is the ability of the system to allow callers to interrupt during voice playback by pressing a key that generates a DTMF touchtone. Talkoff operates for touchtones much like barge-in does for speech, where a caller can interrupt a prompt by speaking.
Often the response time for talkoff is faster than for barge-in. This is because touchtones were designed to be recognized by machines and are rarely confused with other sound or voice input. However, WholeWord speech recognition must perform the more complex task of separating the desired input from other sound or voice input that might be present simultaneously. The system does not terminate a prompt until it processes enough input to ensure with relatively high confidence that the input is valid. For a prompt requiring single-digit input, talkoff and barge-in may appear equally fast since the input is completed with a single touchtone or a single spoken digit. Prompts for multidigit input reveal the difference between the response times for talkoff and barge-in. For information comparing talkoff and barge-in, see Barge-in.
