Keep Assist microphone open between follow-up turns for multi-step conversations on iOS

[bulldoguk]

Describe the feature

I’m testing multi-turn Assist flows in the Home Assistant iOS app, and I’d like the microphone to remain active between turns when the Home Assistant backend indicates the conversation should continue.

Use cases

I am using a custom shopping-list Assist flow in Home Assistant. The backend starts a capture mode and responds with a follow-up prompt such as:
"Okay. What's the first shopping item?"

After each item it responds with another follow-up prompt such as:
"Added bananas. What's the next shopping item?"

On the Home Assistant side, the conversation is intentionally multi-turn and requests continuation, but in the iOS app I still have to tap the microphone again after every response.

Desired behavior:

When the Assist response indicates the conversation should continue, the iOS app should offer a way to keep listening automatically for the next utterance instead of closing the microphone after each turn.

Example flow:

1. User says: "start adding items to my shopping list"
2. App responds: "Okay. What's the first shopping item?"
3. Microphone stays open automatically
4. User says: "bananas"
5. App responds: "Added bananas. What's the next shopping item?"
6. Microphone stays open automatically until the conversation ends or times out

Why this matters:

This would make multi-turn Assist flows much more usable on mobile for shopping lists, note capture, task entry, and other guided dialogs. The backend already knows when it wants to continue; the current limitation appears to be in the mobile app UX.

Possible implementation ideas:

• Add a setting such as "Keep listening during continued Assist conversations"
• Automatically reopen or maintain the microphone when the backend indicates the conversation should continue
• Add a timeout and clear visual indicator so the user knows the app is still listening

If helpful, I can provide a reproducible Home Assistant-side example using a shopping-list capture workflow.

Examples

No response

Anything else?

Device / platform:

• iPhone 17 Pro
• iOS 26.3.1
• Home Assistant Companion App for iOS