You had something to say today.
Get Speaking is a free app for practising that conversation out loud, in private, as many times as you need: with someone new each time in the situation you keep avoiding, or in a language you are still learning. Then you have it for real. That is the whole programme.
The kitchen at lunch, when your manager is there. The drinks table at a party. The climbing social you keep not going to. The doctor’s, in a language you are still learning. Pick one.
Free · No account · Nothing leaves your phone · Not therapy, and it says so
It is a skill, not who you are.
Talking to people is learned the way anything is learned: by doing it, badly at first, somewhere it does not matter. Most people never get that somewhere. This is it. Nobody else hears a word, and you can try again as many times as you like.
Afterwards the app tells you, plainly and kindly, what worked and one thing to try next time. Not a pep talk. Not a grade for who you are. A note on a thing you did, and a thing to do differently.
How it works
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Name the conversation.
“Small talk in the kitchen at lunch.” “Ask about the climbing thing.” A goal is a number of real conversations, three to five, your call.
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Say where it happens.
The room, and who is usually in it, in your words: colleagues you half know, someone always at the kettle. The app never asks who anyone is.
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Practise, someone new each time.
Each practice puts a different made-up person in that room — a first name, where they fit, a couple of traits, how they are today — and they answer in character. When you are done: six skills, scored honestly, and at most two notes, each a concrete thing to try. “Again, harder” is one tap.
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Have it for real.
Then tell the app how it went, in your own words. That is never scored. Only real conversations count towards a goal. Practice never does.
This is the whole thing.
You said it happens in the kitchen at work, at lunch, and that it is usually someone from the team at the coffee machine. So today it is Tom: on the team, always on his phone, in a hurry. Next time it will be someone else. Nobody else can hear it, and you can run it again as many times as you like.
The kitchen at work, just after one. Tom is waiting for the coffee machine, looking at his phone.
- Skill: Opening
You This machine takes forever, doesn’t it.
Tom Every single morning. You on the migration?
- Skill: Asking questions
You Yeah. What’s eating your week?
Tom That, mostly. They moved the date and now nothing fits.
- Skill: Listening & follow-ups
You So the date moved, and everything else has to move with it.
Tom Exactly. Nobody’s said that out loud yet.
- Skill: Sharing about yourself
You I lost Friday to it and got nowhere, if that helps.
Tom Ha. Glad it’s not just me.
- Skill: Keeping it going
You Third time they’ve moved it?
Tom Third. I’ve stopped counting, honestly.
- Skill: Ending well
You I should get back to it. See you at lunch?
Tom Yeah, I’ll be down about one.
The practice in full, six turns, one skill at a time.
That is six turns. Here is what the app says afterwards — and only afterwards.
Six things that make talking to people easier.
Each one is a row on the scorecard, a short lesson, and one move to try. Your weakest row is what the next practice works on. All of it is research on people talking to people.
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Opening
The first thing you say. Its only job is to get an answer. People expect it to go badly, and then it goes fine.
Epley & Schroeder 2014 · Sandstrom & Boothby 2021 -
Asking questions
Questions that hand the conversation to them, and the follow-up that shows you heard. People who ask more are liked more.
Huang, Yeomans, Brooks, Minson & Gino 2017 -
Listening & follow-ups
Saying back the gist of what they said, in fewer words, before you ask anything.
Weger et al. 2014 · Miller & Rollnick 2023 -
Sharing about yourself
One sentence about you every few turns, so it is a conversation and not an interview.
Sprecher et al. 2013 · Kardas, Kumar & Epley 2022 -
Keeping it going
What to do with a pause, a one-word answer or a swerve. The silence is shorter than it feels.
Koudenburg et al. 2011 · Boothby et al. 2018 -
Ending well
Leaving while it is still good, with a next time named.
Mastroianni, Gilbert, Cooney & Wilson 2021
Built to be deleted.
Most apps want to keep you. This one wants you out in the world, talking. So:
- No account. Nothing to join. Open it and start.
- Nothing leaves your phone. Your goals, the situations you describe, every practice and every debrief stay on it. The only thing that goes out is the AI call you set up with your own key.
- No streaks, no notifications, no chatbot that wants you to stay. The person you practise with is made up and new each time. They answer in character and never coach, remember other practices or chat outside one.
- Not therapy, and it says so on the first screen. It is for adults. On day one it asks two short, validated questionnaires, and if the answers say you need more than a skill, it shows you where to find people who can help, before anything else.
- Free. You bring an AI key and pay that provider at their rates. The app tells you what a practice costs before your first one and adds nothing on top.
- It ends. When every goal is met, the programme closes, hands your words back as a file, and suggests you delete it.
- Open source. So you do not have to take our word for any of this.
Free. In the stores soon.
Android first, iPhone right behind. English and German, all the way through.
Until the listings are live, the source is the download: github.com/defoAI/getspeaking. Build it, read every prompt, or just check that nothing phones home.
The longer answers
Three pages, for whichever question you actually came with.
- What it helps with The conversations people put off Work, rooms full of strangers, someone you like, the people you already know, the small things quietly running your week — and the conversations you need in a new language. See the list
- The curriculum The six skills, and where they come from What each one is, the one move to try, how a practice sounds with and without it, and the studies behind each. Read the six
- Under the bonnet How it is built, and what leaves your phone One process, one permitted host, no server of ours — and the file and the test behind each of those claims. Look inside
Questions
Is it therapy?
No, and it says so on the first screen. Get Speaking teaches a skill with techniques that have evidence, and names them where they act. It is not for a crisis, not a diagnosis and not a substitute for a person trained to help. The referral card is one tap from Settings, always.
Why do I need an AI key?
The person who answers you is a language model, and a model needs a key. You do not need one to start: setting up finishes without it, and the app asks once — in place, the first time it actually needs the model — for a key from EdenAI or OpenAI. It checks it and tells you what a practice costs at their rates before you spend anything. That is how it stays free and how your words stay yours.
Does it listen to other people?
No. The microphone is on only during a practice, on your phone, to hear you. It is never on during the real conversation, and it never records anyone else.
Which phones, which languages?
Android 8 and newer first, built to run well on a mid-range phone from a few years ago. The iPhone version follows on the same code. English and German throughout, and each conversation you add has its own practice language.