diff --git a/app/aide/voice-engine.ts b/app/aide/voice-engine.ts
index 0a80756..fd6109a 100644
--- a/app/aide/voice-engine.ts
+++ b/app/aide/voice-engine.ts
@@ -114,6 +114,12 @@ const TOGGLE_CLICK_GRACE_MS = 400;
 // is nothing on screen to remind them.
 export const MUTE_NOTICE = "That's three taps. I'll stop listening now. Tap three times again whenever you want me back.";
 export const UNMUTE_NOTICE = "I'm listening again. What can I help you with?";
+// Waking used to be silent, which is the whole reason a wake could turn into a
+// hold: a user who cannot see "waking up…" has no way to know the tap landed,
+// so they tap again, and a third tap used to complete a mute run. Answering the
+// first tap out loud is what stops the tapping. Kept to two words, because this
+// fires on an ordinary tap and a sentence here would wear thin fast.
+export const WAKE_NOTICE = "I'm listening.";
 
 // The tap-run bookkeeping, kept free of the DOM so it can be tested directly.
 export class TapRun {
@@ -274,7 +280,18 @@ export class VoiceEngine {
   start(): void {
     this.active = true;
     this.canHear = true;
-    this.handlers.onState({ active: true });
+    // Republish what the engine actually is, not just that it is running. This
+    // engine outlives the React tree that renders it — one instance is shared
+    // across remounts — while the provider's state is rebuilt from defaults
+    // every time it mounts. Sending only `active` left a held microphone
+    // reporting itself as listening, which is the one thing a user who cannot
+    // see the screen has no way to catch.
+    this.handlers.onState({
+      active: true,
+      muted: this.muted,
+      dormant: this.dormant,
+      micStatus: this.muted ? "not listening — tap three times to resume" : "starting…",
+    });
     document.addEventListener("visibilitychange", this.onVisibility);
     window.addEventListener("pointerdown", this.unlock);
     window.addEventListener("keydown", this.unlock);
@@ -492,7 +509,12 @@ export class VoiceEngine {
     // and must not ALSO be read as "wake up" or "shut up".
     //
     // Pointers only. A triple keypress is just typing.
-    if (this.canHear && e.type === "pointerdown" && this.countsAsTap(e) && this.taps.register(Date.now())) {
+    //
+    // A tap that arrives while Aide is asleep means "wake up" and nothing else,
+    // so it must not count toward a run. Otherwise the three taps someone makes
+    // to rouse a dormant Aide complete a hold instead, and they hear that Aide
+    // has stopped listening at the exact moment they were asking it to start.
+    if (this.canHear && e.type === "pointerdown" && !this.dormant && this.countsAsTap(e) && this.taps.register(Date.now())) {
       this.toggleMuted();
       return;
     }
@@ -600,7 +622,15 @@ export class VoiceEngine {
   private wake(): void {
     if (!this.dormant || this.muted) return;
     this.dormant = false;
+    // The tap that woke Aide is spent. Anything already counted belongs to a
+    // run the user began while Aide was asleep, and carrying it forward would
+    // let two more taps close the mic they just reopened.
+    this.taps.reset();
     this.handlers.onState({ dormant: false, micStatus: "waking up…" });
+    // Say so. speakNow() closes the mic while it talks and finishOrNext()
+    // reopens it after, so this does not race the recognizer being started
+    // below — but it does mean the user gets an answer to their tap.
+    this.speakNow(WAKE_NOTICE);
     if (this.active) this.startRecognition();
     this.armIdleTimer();
   }
diff --git a/tests/unit/tap-hold.test.ts b/tests/unit/tap-hold.test.ts
index 5aea27f..2c07a41 100644
--- a/tests/unit/tap-hold.test.ts
+++ b/tests/unit/tap-hold.test.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import {
   TRIPLE_TAP_GAP_MS,
   TapRun,
   UNMUTE_NOTICE,
+  WAKE_NOTICE,
 } from "../../app/aide/voice-engine";
 import { SYSTEM_PROMPT } from "../../lib/agent/system";
 
@@ -75,6 +76,47 @@ describe("counting a run of taps", () => {
   });
 });
 
+describe("waking up must not be mistaken for a hold", () => {
+  // Aide sleeps after a quiet spell and any tap wakes it. Waking used to say
+  // nothing, so a user who cannot see "waking up…" had no reason to believe
+  // the tap had landed — and tapping again, twice, closed the microphone they
+  // were trying to reopen. Two things prevent that now: taps that arrive while
+  // Aide is asleep do not count toward a run, and waking answers out loud.
+
+  it("answers the tap, so there is a reason to stop tapping", () => {
+    expect(WAKE_NOTICE.trim()).not.toBe("");
+  });
+
+  it("says it is listening, which is the thing the user just asked for", () => {
+    expect(WAKE_NOTICE).toMatch(/listening/i);
+  });
+
+  it("stays short enough to sit in front of an ordinary tap", () => {
+    // This fires on a plain tap, not a state change the user asked for. A
+    // sentence here would wear thin within one session.
+    expect(WAKE_NOTICE.split(/\s+/).length).toBeLessThanOrEqual(4);
+  });
+
+  it("never asks the user to look at anything", () => {
+    expect(WAKE_NOTICE).not.toMatch(/\b(see|look|watch|screen|display|shown?)\b/i);
+  });
+
+  it("cannot be confused with the notice for closing the mic", () => {
+    expect(WAKE_NOTICE).not.toBe(MUTE_NOTICE);
+    expect(WAKE_NOTICE).not.toBe(UNMUTE_NOTICE);
+  });
+
+  it("leaves no part-run behind for two more taps to finish", () => {
+    // What wake() now does: the tap that woke Aide is spent, so the two taps
+    // that follow it cannot complete a hold on their own.
+    const run = new TapRun();
+    run.register(0); // the tap that woke Aide
+    run.reset(); // …consumed by the wake
+    expect(run.register(100)).toBe(false);
+    expect(run.register(200)).toBe(false);
+  });
+});
+
 describe("what Aide says when the microphone closes and opens", () => {
   it("carries the way back inside the closing notice", () => {
     // This is the LAST thing the user hears before Aide goes quiet. If the