Top Public Speaking Apps for Work
You’ve been asked to do some public speaking for work — the horror. First things first, don’t panic. Public speaking is normally easier than your mind allows you to believe. What’s more, there are plenty of apps available these days to help you. If you’ve managed to avoid public speaking for most of your life, now is the time to build your confidence so that next time you aren’t so panicked at the announcement.
Problems with Public Speaking
Those who were born with confidence might wonder what people dislike about public speaking. More often than not, it’s the risk of making a fool of oneself in front of lots of people. While some people only get nervous when on a stage in front of hundreds, others consider a meeting in front of 20 people as a form of public speaking.
Sadly, people worry about saying the wrong things, making a bad impression on people, or coming across in the wrong way. What’s more, they worry that listeners will laugh at them or otherwise ignore their message.
In 2021, there’s no need to have these fears because you can hone your craft before the event. If you need to speak in front of a large group for work, investigate the following apps and you’ll go into the occasion much happier.
Top Public Speaking Apps for Work
1. Ummo
Firstly, we want to help those who use lots of filler words. Unfortunately, this is a big issue in public speaking because it shines a magnifying glass on your lack of confidence. Examples of filler words include:
- Um
- Uh
- Like
- Right
- Okay
- You know
The reason they are called filler words is that they offer no value to your message; they fill the space between points. Filler words like those seen above can make you seem ill-prepared, unprofessional, and they can take away from your message. With Ummo, the idea is to remove these filler words from your speeches.
As you upload an audio file to the platform, it will tell you how many filler words you use. What’s more, it will also assess pace, clarity, volume, and other aspects of your speech. As you make a conscious effort to remove filler words from your public speaking, watch as the results improve on Ummo.
2. Orai
Head over to the Orai website and you’ll see that it describes the app as a ‘personal speech coach in your pocket’, and it’s hard to disagree. Whenever you get a few moments to practice, open the Orai app and it will use artificial intelligence to provide real-time feedback. While Ummo app’s focus in on filler words, Orai goes deeper with more feedback around pace, confidence, conciseness, facial expressions and energy.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, we think you’ll appreciate the simple interface. After recording a clip, you’ll quickly learn all about pace, energy, filler words, facial expressions, conciseness, confidence, and pausing. In other words, you’ll have everything you need to improve your delivery. Not only this, but you’ll also receive a score for the clip. Over time, your score should improve as you work on the main components of public speaking.
With beautiful colors and an engaging interface, it won’t be long before you notice improvements to your delivery. Just in case this isn’t enough, Orai also offers progress tracking and interactive lessons including storytelling, conveying warmth, introducing yourself, being concise and much, much more!
3. VirtualSpeech
For many, the biggest problem is going from talking into the mirror to a room full of people. There’s no way to imitate the actual speaking environment…or so many people think. With VirtualSpeech, you’ll use virtual reality to create a photo-realistic environment. For example, this includes sound distractions, a realistic audience, and other components that you can expect on the day.
Suddenly, you’re practicing in a much more realistic environment. On the day itself, not everything will go right, and you won’t always have absolute silence. Therefore, we love the idea behind VirtualSpeech. The more you practice with a VR audience, the more normal the presentation will seem during work.
4. Samsung BeFearless
Next, we have an app by one of the biggest technological companies in the world — Samsung. Once again, we return to the virtual reality world. When first loading the app, you’ll choose between three settings:
- Daily Life
- School
- Business
As long as you have the VR headset, you can benefit from the life-like scenarios built by Samsung. Although we’ve focused on presentations, you might need to improve your public speaking for a job interview or even just casual conversations with suppliers and customers. Samsung BeFearless has numerous scenarios for you to progress through.
If you enjoy a sense of progress, this is exactly what you’ll get because you can only advance to the next level if you complete the one before it.
5. The Art of Public Speaking
If you’re looking for a large resource of tips, advice, quotes, and samples, you’ve found it with The Art of Public Speaking app. In case you didn’t know, The Art of Public Speaking is a book written by Dale Carnegie. Although first published in 1915, the foundations of public speaking haven’t changed in the 100 years since. Of course, the only difference is that you’ll implement them differently (an online presentation for work, for example).
The Art of Public Speaking is a companion app for the classic book, and you’ll find all sorts of useful tidbits, tips, quotes, audio samples of some of the greatest speeches, and more. Another advantage of choosing this app is that you get the audiobook version of The Art of Public Speaking. If you haven’t read this before, we highly recommend giving it a go; there’s a reason why it’s still revered today.
6. Voice Analyst
Like other tools on this list, Voice Analyst is designed to analyze your voice…if you can believe this. Mainly, it focuses on volume and pitch, two important aspects of public speaking. In terms of volume, you don’t want to start shouting at your audience nor do you want them not hearing the key points of your presentation.
Made by Speechtools, you receive statistical analysis into the pitch and volume of your voice. To get started, just upload a voice recording from your device (or AirDrop from another Apple device if you’re on iOS). Over time, you’ll set minimum and maximum targets for both volume and pitch.
Although a strong starting point, remember that there’s more to public speaking than just pitch and volume. Combine this with Orai and you’ll also get insights into pace, filler words, confidence, conciseness, and other aspects.
7. PromptSmart Pro
One of the problems with longer public speaking sessions is trying to remember every part of your speech. You want to come across as professional, but you don’t want to hold sheets of paper in front of you. There are many problems with paper when it comes to public speaking:
- It’s easy to lose your place
- The paper can become crumpled and folded
- It makes an awkward rustling noise when switching between pages
- You need a big font to read from a distance, but this can mean dozens of pages for one speech
With PromptSmart, you load your speech into a teleprompter that follows your voice as you speak. While old teleprompter apps of this kind used a set speed, this one from PromptSmart uses clever speech recognition technology to follow your voice. In other words, it pauses whenever you take a breath. Even without an internet connection, you aren’t left having to catch up because the teleprompter continued while you took a slight pause.
Knowing that the full script is right in front of you is very useful if you lose your way. With a glance at your device, you’ll get back on track without desperate fumbling through sheets of paper. PromptSmart Pro can read the following file types:
- TXT
- GDOC
- DOCX
- RTF
What’s more, we like that you can emphasize certain words and phrases with colors. With all the different customization options, this is a great security to fall back on if the presentation is heading in the wrong direction.
Choosing a Public Speaking App for Work
How do you choose a public speaking app for work? Ultimately, it starts with what you want to achieve. In which areas do you need help? If you’re looking for advice and reading material, start with The Art of Public Speaking app. If you’re worried about delivery, Orai is the best place to go for an overview of your current ability. Over time, you’ll pay attention to the advice and watch your score increase.
Meanwhile, those who need prompts for an extended presentation can investigate PromptSmart Pro. The good news is that there’s an app for nearly everything these days, and the same is true for public speaking. Get started today and lose those nerves for work!
