The Storyboard manual showed you how to design what your character does β the steps it walks through in a conversation. This manual is about everything around that: what it looks like, how it sounds, who it is, and how you put it online.
Think of it like this:
- The storyboard is your character’s brain β its plans and rules.
- This page is the face, the outfit, and the voice you wrap around that brain.
- Publish is the big “post it live” button at the end.
You do all of this by clicking around a friendly editor. The tricky behind-the-scenes stuff (drawing the 3D character, making it talk, syncing its mouth) is handled for you β you just make choices.
Companion guides in this folder: the Storyboard manual (your character’s conversation plan) and the Tools manual (giving your character the ability to reach out to other apps). Together they cover the brain, the actions, and β here β the body and how you share it.
1. The big picture: two pieces that snap together
Your character is made of two parts:
| Part | What it is | Where you build it |
|---|---|---|
| The storyboard | The brain β its plan, its rules, its tools and knowledge | Storyboard manual |
| The profile | The face, the personality, the voice β and the Publish button | This manual |
A few things worth knowing up front:
- One character wears one storyboard. But the same storyboard (brain) can be dressed up as several different characters. So you can build one good conversation plan and give it different faces, names, and voices.
- Looks and personality live here. Rules live in the storyboard. This is the single most common mix-up, so remember it: the personality box is for who your character is (warm, witty, no-nonsense). It is not where you write rules like “always confirm before booking.” Those rules go on the storyboard’s scenes.
2. How the editor is laid out
Building a character happens in two steps, and they’re genuinely separate.
Step 1 β Create it
Step 2 β Polish it
Now you’re in the editor. You’ll see a live preview of your character on one side, and a sidebar with three tabs:
| Tab | What you set there | Section below |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | Character look, name, storyboard, personality, voice & language | Β§3, Β§4, Β§5 |
| Space | The background scene behind your character | Β§3 |
| Theme | Camera angle, light/dark, colors, the bubble logo, typing vs. talking | Β§6 |
| Presentation (top dropdown) | Pop-up bubble / full window / built-in | Β§6 |
| Publish (top button) | Put it live | Β§7 |
| Share (top button) | Get a link or a snippet for your site | Β§7 |
Quick “where do I change this?” cheat sheet:
- Its look / background β Space tab
- Its colors / camera / logo β Theme tab
- What it says / its character β Profile βΊ Personality
- Its language or voice β Profile βΊ Voice
- Put it live β Publish
3. Picking a look and a background
You choose a character β you can’t upload your own yet
Set your expectations here: you pick your character from a gallery of ready-made ones. You can’t upload your own design or have one drawn for you. The characters are pre-built and curated for your team.
The background scene works the exact same way: open the Space tab, browse the gallery of backgrounds, and pick one.
The “Create AI avatar” shortcut writes the personality, not the picture
There’s a handy shortcut that’s easy to misunderstand. The Create AI avatar helper is a friendly chat that asks you a few questions β describe your character, what’s its goal, which languages should it speak, any notes or files it should know? β and then, with a click of Generate, it writes for you:
- a name, a personality, a few personality labels, and a voice for each language, and
- a ready-made conversation plan (storyboard) with your notes attached.
What it does not do is draw the character. You still pick the visual from the same gallery (it just picks the first one by default), and it sets a default background you can swap later.
So: think of this shortcut as “write me a personality and a starter plan.” It’s a fast way to get a rough draft you then polish. The face is still your pick.
4. Personality β who your character is
Your character’s personality is two simple things:
- Personality (the big text box) β a short description of who they are. Up to about 2,000 characters. Required.
- Personality labels β 2 to 4 little tags like friendly, precise, witty.
These get fed straight to your character so it speaks in that voice. If you leave the description empty, your character has no defined personality β so always write something if you want a consistent feel.
Two nice touches in the editor:
- You don’t type the labels β they appear on their own. As you write the personality description, the editor reads it and suggests the little tags for you. They’re shown as read-only chips, not something you fill in.
- Prompt templates give you a few ready-made personalities to drop in and tweak.
5. Giving it a voice (and languages)
This part has the most little settings, so here’s the idea first: your character can speak one or more languages, and each language gets its own voice. One language is the Main one.
A couple of honest gotchas
- Voices are provided by Azure and Google. The lineup can change over time β the voice list you see in the console is always authoritative. You’ll see them in the voice list when you go to choose one.
- Want emotion? Pick an Azure voice. Azure voices can sound expressive β warm, happy, and so on. Google voices speak in a flat, neutral tone (they don’t do emotion). So if you want your character to sound like it feels something, choose an Azure voice.
- The microphone always runs on Azure behind the scenes. When a visitor talks to your character (using the mic), that “listening” feature uses Azure β no matter which provider you picked for the speaking voice. The practical upshot: every language you support should have a voice available (an Azure one is the safe bet), or the mic may not start for that language. If you’re unsure, ask whoever set up your team’s voices.
- Fixing how it pronounces things (say “SOVA” not “soh-vah”) is done in one place for your whole team, under Organization βΊ Pronunciation Mapping β a list of “when you see this, say it like that” rules. Changes can take a little while to kick in.
6. How it looks on the page
Two things control the look: where the widget sits on the page, and the Theme tab for colors and framing.
Where it sits (the Presentation dropdown at the top)
| Style | What a visitor sees |
|---|---|
| Chat bubble | A little floating button that pops open into a chat panel |
| Built-in | Sits right inside your page’s layout |
| Full screen | Same as built-in, but expects more room β good for a big, immersive spot |
The Theme tab
- Camera angle β show your character Half-body (waist up) or Full-body (head to toe). (New characters start as Full-body.)
- Camera FOV β three sliders: Distance, Up / Down, Left / Right, each from β10 to 10. These move the camera around your character to frame it nicely β closer/farther, and panning around. Think “stepping around to get a good photo,” not “zooming a lens.” Values past Β±10 do nothing extra.
- Light / Dark β the overall mood.
- Bubble color β pick from six colors for the visitor’s chat bubbles.
- The launcher button β its logo (an animated thumbnail of your character by default), its size, and whether little suggestion captions show up in bubble mode.
- Typing or talking β choose whether visitors type with a keyboard or talk with a mic. Picking the mic turns on the listening feature from Β§5.
7. Publish & share
Nothing is live until you hit Publish. Here’s how it works and the two ways to share it.
The life of a character
The one rule to remember:
A few more notes:
- Publishing for the first time uses one slot on your plan. Re-publishing the same character later does not use another slot.
- Unpublish pauses your character (it stops showing up). Publish again to bring it back.
Two ways to share it
There are two ways to get your character in front of people. The link is the easy one β start there.
Way 1 (easy) β Share a link
Why this is the easy path:
- There’s nothing to set up β it just works.
- Saving a link publishes your character for you automatically, even if it was still a draft.
- It doesn’t count against your publish limit.
Great for: demos, showing a friend, sharing in a chat.
Way 2 β Put it on your own website
This drops your character right onto a site you control. It’s a paid feature and takes a couple more steps.
You don’t need to understand the snippet β you just paste it. But if your site needs a tweaked version, your AI can help:
Which way should I pick?
- Just sharing, demoing, or on the free plan? β The link (Way 1). Easy, instant, free.
- Putting it on a real website you own (paid plan)? β The website embed (Way 2).
8. When something’s not working
| What you’re seeing | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| My edits don’t show up live | Changing a live character switches it to “needs republishing” | Press Publish again |
| Publish is greyed out | A required box is empty (the header says so) | Fill in name, character, and a voice for the main language |
| The character gallery is empty | Your team hasn’t added any characters yet | Ask an admin β you can’t upload your own |
| It won’t talk in a language | That language has no voice picked | Give every language a voice; the main language must have one |
| The mic doesn’t work | Listening runs on Azure; that language may have no Azure voice | Give the language a voice (an Azure one is safest), or ask whoever set up your team’s voices |
| It sounds flat, no emotion | You picked a Google voice (those are neutral) | Choose an Azure voice β those can be expressive |
| “Real” lip-sync looks no better | This character doesn’t support it (nothing warns you) | Switch back to default |
| The camera sliders barely do anything | They reposition the camera, capped at Β±10 β not a zoom | Use Distance for closer/farther; past Β±10 does nothing |
| Nothing shows on my website | Wrong website address, key not attached, or not published | Match the address, attach the key, Publish |
| My embedded chat shows nothing on my site | You probably left the website address blank when making the share key | Fill in the website address on the key |
| “Create AI avatar” didn’t draw a face | That shortcut writes the personality and plan, not the picture | Pick the character from the gallery yourself |
| I can’t find the Embed code card | You’re on the free plan | Use the Live link from the Share dialog instead |
9. The one-page recap
- Your character = a face + a personality + a voice, wrapped around one storyboard (the brain). The personality box is not for rules β rules live in the storyboard.
- Two steps: a Create page (pick character, name, storyboard, personality, presentation), then a 3-tab editor β Profile, Space (background), Theme (look). It auto-saves; no Save button.
- You pick a character from a gallery β you can’t upload your own yet. The Create AI avatar shortcut writes a personality and a plan, not the picture.
- Personality = a description (the labels appear on their own). Keep who it is here; keep rules on the storyboard.
- Voice: up to 4 languages, one voice each, with a Main language that needs a voice. Voices come from Azure / Google β pick an Azure voice if you want emotion (the others are neutral), and remember the mic always runs on Azure. Fix pronunciation team-wide under Pronunciation Mapping.
- Look: bubble vs. built-in vs. full screen, plus the Theme tab (framing, colors, light/dark, logo). Colors and look update live, so editor changes reach already-shared widgets on their own.
- Memory β your character can carry facts across conversations, but only for visitors your own site identifies: the embed must pass a customer ID. Anonymous visitors are never remembered, and what was learned is saved after a conversation goes idle. There is no on/off switch for it, here or in workspace settings.
- Publish to go live. Change anything β Publish again. Share it the easy way with a link (also the only option on the free plan), or put it on your own website with a snippet (paid).