Open Voice Interoperability: Building a Unified Future for Conversational Assistants

Open Voice Interoperability is a pioneering initiative under the Linux Foundation AI & Data Foundation, dedicated to creating open standards that enable conversational assistants—whether voice or text-based—to seamlessly communicate and collaborate. Inspired by the way web browsers interact with web pages, this platform establishes a universal API and standardized protocols like the Conversation Envelope, Dialog Events, and Assistant Manifest to ensure interoperability across diverse technologies, including LLMs and legacy systems. Designed for developers, researchers, and organizations across government, business, and non-profit sectors, it promotes trust, flexibility, and innovation in AI-driven dialogue systems. The project offers a fully open-source sandbox environment with sample assistants supporting both voice and text input, along with comprehensive documentation, GitHub-hosted specifications, and active community engagement through events and collaborative development.

Key Features:

• Conversation Envelope: A universal JSON structure enabling interoperability between human and automatic agents in conversations.
• Dialog Events: Standardized data format for language events within dialog systems, tied to individual speakers and time spans.
• Assistant Manifest: Structured description of assistant capabilities and service endpoints for seamless discovery and integration.
• Open-Source Sandbox: A web-based testing environment using Python and JavaScript with sample assistants powered by LLMs and traditional tech.
• GitHub-Hosted Specifications: Transparent, community-driven development and documentation of standards.
• Universal API: Enables interoperability without requiring changes to existing assistant architectures.
• Cross-Platform Support: Works across mobile devices, smart speakers, and websites.
• Collaborative Development: Open contribution model for improvements and bug reports via GitHub.
• Community & Events: Active engagement through meetings, presentations, and research papers in the background repository.

Pricing: Open Voice Interoperability is completely free and open-source, with no paid tiers or subscriptions required. All specifications, tools, and resources are available at no cost to developers and organizations.

Conclusion: Open Voice Interoperability is a transformative, community-powered effort to unify the future of AI assistants, making them work together reliably, securely, and like the web—setting a new benchmark for openness, collaboration, and user trust in voice and chat technologies.