How to Use an Interview Copilot for a Phone Interview: Setup Guide

Interview copilot for a phone interview: the two documented setups, speaker selection, answer modes, a pre-call checklist and fixes.

Using an interview copilot for a phone interview sounds like the easy case, because there is no camera and no screen to share. The difficulty is somewhere else: on a video call the copilot hears the interviewer through the computer's own audio, whereas on a phone call the interviewer's voice never enters the computer at all unless you arrange for it to.

We wrote this for candidates who have a recruiter call or a phone round coming up and want the setup finished before the phone rings. It covers the two setups Verve AI documents, how the audio and the speaker separation work, which answer mode suits a call, where to put the screen, a checklist to run beforehand and the fixes for common problems. We make Verve AI, a real-time interview copilot, and what we say about the setup comes from its own documentation as it stood in October 2026.

The short answer is to run the copilot on a computer, put the call on your phone next to the computer's microphone, and tell the copilot which voice is the interviewer's.

What are the two ways to set up an interview copilot for a phone interview?

Verve AI documents two arrangements, and they differ in which device runs the copilot.

The first is the one its documentation recommends. You take the call on your phone and run the copilot on a computer, in the desktop app for Mac or Windows or in the browser version, using a mode called Phone Interview. The Phone Interview documentation describes it as built for a separate-device setup, with the call on one device and the copilot on the other.

The second is the mobile experience, where the copilot itself runs in a mobile browser on a tablet or a second phone. Verve AI's documentation is direct about when to choose it: use mobile only when a phone is your only option, and use the desktop app or the browser version for the best results.

How do you set up the copilot on a computer?

Launching a session takes the same steps as any other interview, with one different choice at the start.

1. Open the copilot launch page in the desktop app or in Chrome, Edge or Opera.
2. Choose Phone Interview as the interview domain, which sits in the Core group beside General Interview and Coding Interview.
3. Select an interview profile, or build a new one from your resume, your role and seniority, and the company.
4. Review the settings, which cover the interview language, the audio permission and the knowledge base documents to use.
5. Launch the session and turn on your microphone when the copilot asks for it.

Answers are built from your resume, the job description, uploaded documents and your own stories in STAR format, so a profile with the current resume in it does most of the work.

How does the copilot hear the call?

In Phone Interview mode the copilot listens through your computer's microphone, and the documentation gives one instruction about placement: position your phone near the computer's microphone for clear audio capture.

That instruction has a practical consequence for how you take the call. The microphone can only pick up the interviewer if the interviewer's voice is audible in the room, so the call needs to play through the phone's speaker. A headset or earbuds on the phone would keep that voice away from the computer, and the copilot would then hear only you.

Because one microphone is hearing two people, the copilot has to work out who is speaking. Verve AI calls this speaker diarization, and it runs automatically as the conversation starts.

1. The copilot detects the different speakers and lists them in the session.
2. You select the speaker who is the interviewer.
3. The copilot then answers that speaker's questions and leaves your own speech alone.

You can reassign the speakers during the session, and the selection is not optional, because real-time answers start only after an interviewer has been assigned.

Which answer mode suits a phone call?

Verve AI has three response modes, and all of them work when you use an interview copilot for a phone interview. New sessions start in Auto unless you change the default.

• Auto answers each line from the interviewer as soon as it has been transcribed.
• Smart Listening waits until the interviewer has finished the question and skips small talk and comments.
• Manual keeps transcribing and produces an answer only when you ask for one.

Smart Listening is a good fit for a recruiter call, which tends to contain a lot of greeting and scheduling talk. The documentation adds one point specific to phone interviews: Smart Listening checks only the speaker you selected as the interviewer, so pick the interviewer first.

Manual is the mode the documentation suggests for noisy surroundings or when you want more control. You press the Assist button, or Cmd+Enter on a Mac and Ctrl+Enter on Windows, and the copilot answers from the recent transcript.

A phone answer should usually be shorter than a video answer, because the listener has no face to watch. Cmd or Ctrl with the up or down arrow makes an answer longer or shorter. What appears on screen is a set of prompts for answers given in your own words, so read the structure and then speak naturally.

Where should you put the screen?

A phone call removes the usual worry about eye contact, so put the computer directly in front of you at reading distance, and place the phone flat beside it on the side where the microphone is. Stealth Mode, the desktop feature that keeps the app out of a shared screen, has no job to do on a call without screen sharing.

Cmd or Ctrl with the plus key enlarges the answer text before the call. The Session Sharing setting also gives you a link that opens the same live session on another device.

How does the mobile experience work?

When no computer is available, the copilot can run in a mobile browser on a separate device from the call. The mobile experience documentation lists Chrome, Safari and Firefox as the browsers to use.

1. Open the Verve AI web app in the mobile browser on a tablet or a second phone.
2. Choose Phone Interview Copilot from the dashboard, which is the only copilot type supported on mobile.
3. Start the session and select your microphone device so the copilot can hear the call.
4. Press Assist when you want help, and the copilot answers from the recent transcript.

The documentation explains why this is the second choice: a mobile browser captures the interviewer and you from the same source, which makes the speakers harder to tell apart and background noise harder to filter. Screen capture and Stealth Mode are not part of the mobile experience either.

What should you check before the call?

Run through this list the day before the call.

1. Update the interview profile with your current resume and the job description.
2. Open the launcher's settings and use the Test Audio tab to confirm the microphone is being received.
3. Choose your default response mode in the Layout tab of the same settings.
4. Place the phone next to the computer's microphone and make a test call on speaker.
5. Check that two speakers appear in the session and practise selecting the interviewer.
6. Charge the phone, silence notifications on both devices and close the door.

Verve AI's mock interviews are a useful rehearsal for the content of the call, since they are spoken sessions with an AI interviewer that end with a report.

What do you do when something goes wrong?

Verve AI's documentation lists a fix for each of the common problems.

• If no audio is captured on a phone or tablet, check the browser's microphone permission in the device settings, then refresh and restart the session.
• If real-time answers do not start or do not make sense, check which speaker is assigned as the interviewer.
• If transcription is poor on mobile, move somewhere quieter or switch to the desktop app.

When a question is missed entirely, type it into the built-in chatbot. Typed questions and live audio share one conversation context, so the answer takes account of everything said earlier in the call.

How does Verve AI fit a phone interview?

An interview copilot for a phone interview has one job, which is keeping up with a conversation, and that is Verve AI's main strength. The copilot keeps the context of the whole conversation, so when a recruiter follows up on something you said five minutes ago, the answer reflects the earlier question and your own reply. The AI interview copilot page shows the product in a live session.

The free plan includes three live sessions of fifteen minutes and five mock interviews, with no card required, so you can start on Verve AI's free plan and run the whole setup on a practice call first.

For the conversation itself, our guide to the phone screen interview covers what recruiters ask and how to prepare notes. If the next round moves to video, we have a matching guide for an interview copilot on Zoom.

FAQ

Can you use an interview copilot when the interview is a normal phone call?

You can use Verve AI on a normal phone call by running it on a computer in Phone Interview mode. The call stays on your phone, the copilot listens through the computer's microphone, and speaker diarization separates the interviewer's voice from yours.

Does the phone need to be on speaker for the copilot to hear the interviewer?

Verve AI's documentation tells you to position your phone near the computer's microphone for clear audio capture. The microphone can only hear the interviewer when the interviewer's voice is audible in the room, which in practice means taking the call on the phone's speaker.

Which Verve AI answer mode is best for a phone interview?

All three Verve AI answer modes work in a phone interview. Smart Listening suits most recruiter calls because it waits for the full question and skips small talk, and it checks only the speaker you selected as the interviewer.

Can you run the copilot on a phone or tablet during a phone interview?

Verve AI's mobile experience runs in Chrome, Safari or Firefox on a tablet or a second phone. Verve AI's documentation recommends mobile only when a phone is your only option, because a mobile browser captures both voices from the same source.

Why is the copilot not answering during a phone interview?

Real-time answers in Verve AI's Phone Interview mode begin only after you select which detected speaker is the interviewer. If that selection has been made and answers still do not appear, check the microphone permission and confirm the phone is close to the microphone.