GitHub - switchboard-sdk/EdgeSpeech: React Native hook for on device speech processing

A React Native hook that provides on-device AI speech processing on iOS and Android, completely locally. This can be up to 99% cheaper than cloud speech-to-speech.

Example Usage

import { EdgeSpeechProvider, useEdgeSpeech } from '@synervoz/edgespeech'

function VoiceChat() {
  const { listen, speak, onTranscriptComplete } = useEdgeSpeech()

  onTranscriptComplete(async (text) => {
    const response = await chat(text)
    await speak(response)
  })

  return <Button onPress={listen} title="Start Listening" />
}

export default function App() {
  return (
    <EdgeSpeechProvider appId="YOUR_APP_ID" appSecret="YOUR_APP_SECRET">
      <VoiceChat />
    </EdgeSpeechProvider>
  )
}

Installation

Requirements

EdgeSpeech is a bare React Native C++ TurboModule and requires the New Architecture. It works in both Expo (prebuild) and bare React Native apps — it does not use the Expo Modules API.

Setup

1. Install the package.

npm install @synervoz/edgespeech

The native payload isn't bundled in the npm package — each platform's build fetches it, so nothing extra to run by hand.

On Android, the STT/TTS models download during your first build into the library's own assets, which Android's asset merge folds into your APK. The AARs bundle no models (the iOS frameworks bake the same ones in), which is why Android needs the separate fetch. Give the first build time; later builds skip it.

The set is fixed: Whisper base.en for STT (141 MB) and the en_GB Piper voice for TTS. Those are the same model and voice the iOS frameworks bake in, so neither platform needs a choice and both behave identically. English only, one model each.

2. Install NDK r29. Both paths need it, before your first Android build:

"$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin/sdkmanager" --install "ndk;29.0.14206865"

Or from Android Studio: SDK Manager → SDK Tools → NDK (Side by side) → 29.0.14206865 (cmdline-tools isn't present in a default Android Studio install).

The prebuilt Switchboard .so reference __cxa_init_primary_exception, a libc++ symbol absent from the template's r27 default; your app packages exactly one libc++_shared.so, so on r27 the app builds and installs but dies at launch with dlopen failed: cannot locate symbol.

The remaining settings: Prefab and the Maven repo (EdgeSpeech's C++ TurboModule is compiled in your app's native build, so the app resolves the Switchboard AARs itself), dropping 32-bit x86 (no AAR for it), and legacy packaging (extracts native libs so Whisper's ggml backends can dlopen).

3. Configure app.json (Expo — for bare React Native, skip to Bare React Native). Add the config plugin before prebuilding, since prebuild is what applies it. It takes no options and does the Android setup for you (Maven repo, Prefab, NDK 29, legacy packaging, dropping x86), so you don't need expo-build-properties. It is only required for Android — every setting it writes is a Gradle one, so on an iOS-only project it does nothing:

{
  "expo": {
    "newArchEnabled": true,
    "plugins": ["@synervoz/edgespeech"],
    "ios": {
      "bundleIdentifier": "com.yourcompany.yourapp",
      "infoPlist": {
        "NSMicrophoneUsageDescription": "This app needs microphone access for voice input"
      }
    },
    "android": { "package": "com.yourcompany.yourapp" }
  }
}

The identifiers matter too: expo run:ios / expo run:android prebuild your native projects, and prebuild fails without them — a fresh create-expo-app project has neither.

4. Build:

npx expo run:ios
npx expo run:android

If you prebuilt before adding the plugin, prebuild again (npx expo prebuild --clean) — otherwise the generated android/ has no Maven repo, no Prefab and NDK 27, and the app crashes at launch. Every Android build prints the NDK it used, so you can confirm it landed:

[ExpoRootProject]  - ndk:  29.0.14206865

Bare React Native

New Architecture is on by default (RN 0.76+) — for older setups, RCT_NEW_ARCH_ENABLED=1 at pod install. Add microphone permission to your Info.plist:

<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs microphone access for voice input</string>

EdgeSpeech's C++ TurboModule is compiled in your app's native build, so your app declares the Switchboard Maven repo and enables Prefab itself.

In android/build.gradle — at the project level, matching how React Native's Gradle plugin adds its own repos (a settings-level dependencyResolutionManagement block is ignored under Gradle's default PREFER_PROJECT mode):

buildscript {
  ext {
    ndkVersion = "29.0.14206865"   // required by the Switchboard SDK
  }
}

allprojects {
  repositories {
    maven { url "https://s3.amazonaws.com/synervoz-android-maven-repository" }
  }
}

In android/app/build.gradle:

android {
  buildFeatures { prefab true }
  packagingOptions { jniLibs { useLegacyPackaging true } }
}

// Runs EdgeSpeech's codegen before this app's native build — without it, Android builds
// can fail on a missing codegen/jni dir. Expo apps get this from the config plugin.
apply from: new File(
  providers.exec {
    workingDir(rootDir)
    commandLine("node", "--print", "require.resolve('@synervoz/edgespeech/package.json')")
  }.standardOutput.asText.get().trim()
).parentFile.toPath().resolve("android/edgespeech-app.gradle").toFile()

In android/gradle.properties:

reactNativeArchitectures=armeabi-v7a,arm64-v8a,x86_64

Then npx react-native run-android.

API Reference

The useEdgeSpeech hook provides access to the main functions of the Switchboard SDK.

EdgeSpeechProvider provider

Wrap your app in the EdgeSpeechProvider and configure it.

<EdgeSpeechProvider
  appId="YOUR_APP_ID"         // Optional: Switchboard app ID
  appSecret="YOUR_APP_SECRET" // Optional: Switchboard app secret
  vadSensitivity={0.5}        // Optional: VAD sensitivity 0.0–1.0 (default: 0.5)
>
  <App />
</EdgeSpeechProvider>

useEdgeSpeech hook

Access the state and actions from any component with the useEdgeSpeech hook.

const {
  // State
  transcript,              // string       — live interim transcript (clears on final)
  voiceState,              // see the state table below
  error,                   // string | null
  hasMicrophonePermission, // boolean | null

  // Actions
  listen,                      // () => Promise<void>
  stopListening,               // () => Promise<void>
  speak,                       // (text: string) => Promise<void>
  stopSpeaking,                // () => Promise<void>
  requestMicrophonePermission, // () => Promise<boolean>

  // Callbacks
  onTranscriptComplete, // (cb: (text: string) => void) => void — fires on final transcript
  onInterrupted,        // (cb: () => void) => void — fires when VAD interrupts TTS
} = useEdgeSpeech()

voiceState passes through three lifecycle states before it reaches the audio pipeline:

speak() opens the microphone even from ready: one combined engine keeps echo cancellation live so barge-in works. That is also why finishing an utterance leaves you in listening rather than back at ready.

Gate your UI on ready, not on idle — idle is also where a failed init lands, and error is what tells you one happened.

Repeated calls are safe, so you don't need to guard the buttons yourself:

• listen() while a start is already in progress is a no-op — the microphone is opened once.
• stopListening() during a start cancels it, and the microphone is never opened.
• speak() while speaking queues the new text rather than cutting off what is playing — use stopSpeaking() for that.