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Text Chat

Send text messages and handle streaming responses from AI characters.

Sending Messages​

Basic Send​

// Fire-and-forget (synchronous wrapper)
character.SendText("Hello!");

// Async
await character.SendTextAsync("Hello!");

Text-Only Mode​

By default, SendText automatically suppresses TTS when no voice session is active. To explicitly control this:

// Force text-only (no TTS audio generated)
character.SendText("Hello!", textOnly: true);

// Force voice response (even without an active voice session)
character.SendText("Hello!", textOnly: false);

Handling Streaming Responses​

Bot responses arrive as a stream of chunks. Each BotResponse event contains a piece of the full reply.

Accumulating Text​

private string _fullResponse = "";

void Start()
{
    character.OnBotResponse += HandleBotResponse;
}

void HandleBotResponse(BotResponse response)
{
    if (response.IsFinal)
    {
        // Final chunk: response.Text contains the complete response
        _fullResponse = response.Text;
        Debug.Log($"Complete: {_fullResponse}");
    }
    else
    {
        // Partial chunk: accumulate
        _fullResponse += response.Text;
    }
}

Using CurrentPartialResponse​

The EstuaryCharacter component automatically accumulates streaming text:

void Update()
{
    // Always shows the latest accumulated text
    responseLabel.text = character.CurrentPartialResponse;
}

BotResponse Fields​

FieldTypeDescription
TextstringText content of this chunk
IsFinalbooltrue when the response is complete
IsPartialbooltrue for streaming chunks
MessageIdstringUnique ID for this response
ChunkIndexintSequential index of this chunk
IsInterjectionbooltrue if this is a proactive message

Chat UI Example​

A simple TextMeshPro-based chat display:

using UnityEngine;
using TMPro;
using Estuary;
using Estuary.Models;

public class ChatUI : MonoBehaviour
{
    [SerializeField] private EstuaryCharacter character;
    [SerializeField] private TMP_InputField inputField;
    [SerializeField] private TMP_Text chatLog;
    [SerializeField] private TMP_Text streamingText;

    void Start()
    {
        character.OnBotResponse += OnBotResponse;
        character.OnConnected += OnConnected;

        inputField.onSubmit.AddListener(OnSubmit);
    }

    void OnConnected(SessionInfo session)
    {
        chatLog.text += "\n<color=#888>[Connected]</color>";
    }

    void OnSubmit(string text)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text)) return;

        // Display user message
        chatLog.text += $"\n<b>You:</b> {text}";

        // Send to character
        character.SendText(text, textOnly: true);

        // Clear input
        inputField.text = "";
        inputField.ActivateInputField();

        // Clear streaming display
        streamingText.text = "";
    }

    void OnBotResponse(BotResponse response)
    {
        if (response.IsFinal)
        {
            // Move final response to chat log
            chatLog.text += $"\n<b>AI:</b> {response.Text}";
            streamingText.text = "";
        }
        else
        {
            // Show streaming text
            streamingText.text = character.CurrentPartialResponse;
        }
    }
}

Actions in Text Responses​

Bot responses may contain action tags (e.g., <action name="wave" />). By default, EstuaryCharacter strips these before updating CurrentPartialResponse. To access the raw text with action tags, handle the BotResponse event directly -- the Text field contains the original text before stripping.

To disable automatic stripping, uncheck Strip Actions From Text on the EstuaryCharacter component.

See Action System for details on handling actions.

Interjections​

Characters can send proactive messages (interjections) without user input. These have IsInterjection = true:

character.OnBotResponse += (response) =>
{
    if (response.IsInterjection)
    {
        // Character is speaking unprompted
        ShowNotification(response.Text);
    }
};

Next Steps​

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