Session types — Interview vs Regular Call

When you click Start Session in Interview AI, the first decision is session type. Two options today: Interview (default) and Regular Call. They're different flows with different defaults.

Interview (default)

Use this for actual job interviews — recruiter screens, hiring-manager rounds, technical screens, on-sites.

What you get:

• Interview notes at session end (what you nailed, what to sharpen)
• AI defaults to interview-coaching framing ("answer as if you're a candidate")
• Coaching nudges tuned for behavioral / technical interview patterns
• Answers default to Quick points (a few bold points to glance at and say)
• Auto-Answer is on unless you've turned it off in Settings › Account — the AI answers each interviewer question by itself (switch it off to fire manually)
• Session counts toward your interview history on /sessions
• Transcript is saved + indexable, used to grade you against the rubric

Regular Call

Use this for everything else where you want a live AI assistant but it's not a formal interview:

• Sales calls — AI suggests counter-arguments, objection handling
• Customer-discovery interviews — AI surfaces follow-up questions
• Networking chats — AI suggests pivot points
• Recruiter intro calls — softer than a real interview
• Coaching / mentoring sessions — AI is in suggestion mode, not interview-prep mode

What's different:

• No scorecard. The rubric doesn't apply because the call isn't an interview.
• AI defaults to assistant framing — less "answer this question as a candidate," more "be useful in this conversation."
• Coaching nudges are softer — less "use STAR," more "what they actually asked was X — answer that."
• Reference document uploads available per session — see Resume AI — but capped per plan tier (Free=1, Hour Pack=1, Pro=2, Pro+=3 per session).
• Same models, same answer styles, same shortcuts — only the framing changes.

Why "Practice" is no longer an option

Earlier versions had a third session type called Practice where the AI acted as the interviewer asking you questions. It was retired 2026-04-22 as part of the core-product strip — /practice now redirects to /sessions. An AI interviewer is back as its own feature: Mock AI in the sidebar, which asks you questions out loud and gives you a report card. Mocks are separate from your sessions and never show up here. See Mock AI.

Picking when you're unsure

• Is the other person hiring you? → Interview
• Is the other person evaluating you? → Interview
• Is the other person buying from you? → Regular Call (sales)
• Is the other person mentoring you? → Regular Call
• Default if confused? → Interview. Scorecard at the end is bonus signal even if it's not strictly an interview.

Where these settings live

You pick the session type when you start a session, in the Start Session window on the Sessions page. It's saved with that session. Your other settings (model, custom prompt) start from what you used last time.

Gotchas

• You can't switch type mid-session. Pick at start. To switch, end the current one and create a new one.
• Regular Call uploads are session-scoped. Documents uploaded in one Regular Call don't appear in the next one. Re-upload if needed.
• Both types use the same hour-counting. Free 60-min/month cap applies to both equally.

Still stuck?

Help & how-tos → Contact us with category "How do I…?" if you want a third session type for a specific use case.