Streaming to an Amazon Lex V2 bot
You can use the Amazon Lex V2 streaming API to start a bidirectional stream between an Amazon Lex V2 bot and your application. Starting a stream enables the bot to manage the conversation between the bot and the user. The bot responds to user input without you writing code to handle responses from the user. The bot can:
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Handle interruptions from the user while it's playing a prompt. For more information, see Enabling your bot to be interrupted by your user.
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Wait for the user to provide input. For example, the bot can wait for the user to gather credit card information. For more information, see Enabling the bot to wait for the user to provide more information.
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Take both dual-tone multiple-frequency (DTMF) and audio input in the same stream.
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Handle pauses in user input better than if you were managing the conversation from your application.
Not only does the Amazon Lex V2 bot respond to data sent from your application, but it also sends information about the state of the conversation to your application. You can use this information to change how your application responds to customers.
The Amazon Lex V2 bot also monitors the connection between the bot and your application. It can determine if the connection has timed out.
To use the API to start a stream to an Amazon Lex V2 bot, see Starting a stream to a bot.
When you start streaming to an Amazon Lex V2 bot from your application, you can configure the bot to accept audio input or text input from the user. You can also choose whether the user receives audio or text in response to their input.
If you've configured the Amazon Lex V2 bot to accept audio input from the user, it can't take text input. If you've configured the bot to accept text input, the user can only use written text to communicate with it.
When an Amazon Lex V2 bot takes a streaming audio input, the bot determines when a user begins speaking and when they stop speaking. It handles any pauses or any interruptions from the user. It can also take DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) input and speech input in the same stream. This helps the user interact with the bot more naturally. You can present users with welcome messages and prompts. You can also enable users to interrupt those messages and prompts.
When you start a bidirectional stream, Amazon Lex V2 uses the HTTP/2 protocol
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Text, audio, or DTMF input from the user.
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Signals from the application to the Amazon Lex V2 bot. These include an indication that audio playback of a message has been completed, or that the user has disconnected from the session.
For more information about events, see Starting a stream to a bot. For information about how to encode events, see Event stream encoding.
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