Aplomby

Nobody gets better by reading about it.

You get better by doing it, badly, until it stops being bad — and the hard part is doing it at all. Aplomby gives you a stage, a random topic and a clock, then scores how you did. Two minutes, no audience, no setup.

Download on the App Store

iPhone, iPad and Mac — one universal purchase.

100 Lessons
50 Scenarios
100 Topics
0 Network calls
Aplomby — speak with aplomb. Composure isn’t a talent. It’s reps.

How a rep works

Two minutes, start to score

The hard part of speaking practice was never the practising. It was starting. So there is nothing to set up, nothing to book, and nobody to ask.

1

Prop up your phone

Lean it against something across the room, or just sit at your Mac. Distance is the point — the topic is set in type you can read from the far wall.

2

Take a topic

One of 100 across five categories, or bring your own if you are rehearsing something real. Then a 3–2–1 countdown, and the clock starts.

3

Talk

Camera and mic where they are available, audio only where they are not. Turn on curveballs and an audience question lands mid-talk with a haptic thump.

4

Read the score card

Pace, fillers, pauses and airtime, with a sub-score breakdown and any personal best it just beat. You never have to watch yourself back — though you can.

The live stage: one topic in large type, with the clock running

Aplomb: noun — composure under pressure. It isn’t a talent. It’s reps.

Scored, not judged

Four numbers, measured the moment you stop

A score is not a verdict on you. It is four things about the last two minutes, each of which you can do something about before the next rep.

Pace

Words per minute, against the 120–160 range that reads as confident rather than rushed.

Filler words

Every “um”, “uh” and “like”, counted and highlighted in the transcript so you can see where they cluster.

Pauses

Your longest silence, in seconds. Dead air is invisible while you are in it and obvious to everyone else.

Airtime

How much of the time you set aside you actually used — the gap between what you planned and what you said.

Zero Fillers Steady Pace No Dead Air

Lessons that train a measurable skill hand you straight into one of three focused drills, judged pass or fail on the score card.

Learn

100 lessons across 12 tracks

Ordered as an arc — structure first, then delivery, then the rooms you have to do it in. Each lesson is a three-minute read with one key takeaway, the mistakes people actually make, a phrase worth swapping, and a three-question quiz.

Structure

Openings, endings, and the shape that holds a talk together.

Delivery mechanics

Pace, pausing, emphasis — the parts a score card can see.

Voice

Pitch, volume, warmth, and not running out of breath.

Body & presence

Where to put your hands, your feet and your eyes.

Nerves & mindset

What the adrenaline is for, and how to spend it instead of fighting it.

Content craft

Stories, examples and evidence that earn the time they take.

Persuasion

Making a case to people who did not arrive agreeing with you.

Q&A & pressure

The hostile question, the one you cannot answer, and the save.

Conversation

Small talk, entering a group, and leaving one without a wince.

Work communication

Standups, updates, and saying the thing in the meeting.

Occasions

Toasts, eulogies, introductions — the ones you cannot decline.

Media & remote

Cameras, panels and the particular deadness of a video call.

Scenarios

50 conversations you’ll actually have

Choose-your-response dialogues drawn from real rooms — the networking opener, the hard feedback, the passive-aggressive colleague, the interview you want. Every option comes back with a coach’s note explaining why it lands or doesn’t.

Best

2 points

The answer that does the most work in the room.

or
Decent

1 point

Fine. Survivable. Not the one you would replay proudly.

or
Poor

0 points

The instinct worth training out. The note tells you why.

Three tiers rather than right and wrong, because most real answers are neither. The finish screen recaps your run one dot per step, so the percentage always traces back to the choices that made it. And the dialogue answers you: a step written for a player who bluffed reads differently from the same step after you owned it.

Networking & events Feedback & conflict Managing up Meetings & visibility Interviews & career Friends & family Awkward moments

Everything else

Built to be a habit, not a course

A course you finish once does nothing. What changes how you speak is turning up again, so the whole app is arranged around the next rep.

Today’s Mix

One lesson, one scenario and one stage rep a day — small enough to finish before breakfast, with per-day completion and a streak that notices.

Watch the line climb

Score, pace and filler trends over time, a twelve-week consistency grid, and every session you have recorded, kept and searchable.

Twelve badges

Streaks, zero-filler sessions, category explorer, drill mastery. All of them earned on the stage rather than handed out for opening the app.

Curveballs & twists

14 surprise audience questions that drop in mid-talk, and 16 optional constraints — open with a question, make them laugh once.

iPhone, iPad and Mac

One universal purchase across all three. Tabs on iOS, a sidebar on macOS, and layouts checked on every width in between.

Your history, exportable

A daily reminder, a Siri shortcut to start a practice, a recording store with a size readout and bulk delete, and CSV export of everything.

Screenshots

A look inside the app

Setting up a stage: topic, category and speaking time

Take the stage

The live stage, one topic in large type with the clock running

Live

A score card with pace, fillers, pauses and airtime

Score card

The Learn curriculum, 100 lessons across 12 tracks

Learn

The scenario library, 50 dialogues across 7 tracks

Scenarios

Playing a scenario, with a coach’s note on every choice

Coach’s note

Progress: trends over time and a twelve-week consistency grid

Progress

Home, with the streak and Today’s Mix

Today’s Mix

Your stage is ready. Everything stays on your device.

On device

Privacy

A recording of you is not our business

This app watches you speak. That is an unusually intimate thing to hand an app, so the answer is not a promise in a policy — it is that there is nowhere for it to go.

No network

The app makes no requests

No account, no sign-up, no analytics, no crash reporting, no third-party SDKs of any kind. There is no server to send anything to, because there is no server.

Enforced

On device, or not at all

Where a device cannot transcribe locally, Aplomby refuses to transcribe rather than let the system upload your audio. It measures your timing from the waveform instead — the rep still counts, and the score card says which two numbers are missing.

Yours

Delete it all in one tap

Recordings live in the app’s own container with a size readout and a bulk delete. Your history exports to CSV whenever you want it, and deleting the app takes the rest with it.

No account No analytics No third-party SDKs Works offline

Pricing

Start on the stage, not on a paywall

The free tier is drawn on whole categories rather than a running count, so you can tell at a glance what you have and what you don’t.

Included

Start speaking

No account, no card, no sign-up.

  • A full practice on the stage every day
  • The whole first Learn track — all 7 Structure lessons
  • The first 3 Networking & events scenarios
  • Today’s Mix, built from what you can actually finish
Aplomby Pro

Monthly, yearly or forever

The yearly plan opens with a free trial. The lifetime option is a single payment.

  • No daily limit on the stage
  • All 100 lessons and all 50 scenarios
  • Your complete session history and trends
  • The pressure modes — curveballs, twists and drill focus
  • One universal purchase across iPhone, iPad and Mac
Aplomby

Your stage is ready

Free to start. iPhone and iPad on iOS 17 or later, Mac on macOS 14 or later.

Download on the App Store