Abstract: A method is described for operating a speech dialog system, which communicates with a user using a speech recognition device and a speech output device, wherein the speech dialog system transmits to the user data detected and/or generated for the user by the speech dialog system on the basis of the dialog. According to the invention, after receiving a user's transmission mode select command, the speech dialog system formats the data to be transmitted to the user in a data format suitable for the selected transmission mode and sends the data over an interface suitable for this transmission mode. An appropriate speech dialog system is also described.