Public speaking
You get better at public speaking by speaking out loud, often, with feedback. Volo is a public speaking practice app for iPhone with eleven lessons on nerves, structure, openings and Q&A, plus Announcer Studio, where you read real scripts aloud from a scrolling teleprompter and get your words per minute, filler count, longest pause and a coach's note back.
4.9 ★ App Store · 7-day free trial
What you'll learn
Speak with clarity and poise in front of any audience. Every lesson ends with one small step to try in the real world.
The body needs warming up too. Presentations fail when only the mind is ready.
Lesson · 3 min
One idea, said three ways. The talk is the delivery system, not the content.
Lesson · 3 min
The room decides early whether to listen. Don't spend that window on thank-yous.
Lesson · 3 min
The ending rewrites how the audience remembers everything before it.
Lesson · 3 min
Stories are how the talk gets remembered. The data is what makes them credible.
Lesson · 3 min
Flipping through the slides again is not rehearsal. One out-loud run finds problems a week of re-reading never will.
Lesson · 3 min
The voice is more than half of the talk. Most speakers use a fraction of its range.
Lesson · 3 min
The rules change with the size of the room. Gesture, movement, and eye contact all scale.
Lesson · 3 min
A talk is a relationship, not a recital. The audience can tell which one you think it is.
Lesson · 3 min
You can't script the questions. You can script how you meet them.
Lesson · 3 min
The mistake isn't the problem. The handling of the mistake is.
Lesson · 3 min
The fear is mostly physical, so the fix is partly physical. A body that is warmed up and breathing slowly sends a very different signal to the brain than one that is frozen in the wings. Volo's first public speaking lesson, Controlling Nerves, is free and takes three minutes. After that, the antidote is exposure in small doses: one-minute reads in Announcer Studio, alone, until your voice stops shaking on the first line.
Out loud, timed, and with something measuring you. Flipping through slides is not rehearsal. In Announcer Studio you pick a scene, the script scrolls like a teleprompter, and the app records you and reports your pace, your filler words and your longest pause, with a short coaching note. Saved takes live in My Takes so you can hear yourself improve. The real-life scenes include a quarterly presentation, a wedding toast and a TED-style opening.
Words per minute against a target band for the scene, the number of fillers (um, uh, like) that slipped through, your longest pause and whether it read as intentional, and an AI coach's note on delivery. Zero fillers gets you a clean take. Each scene is 60 to 75 seconds, which is long enough to find your rhythm and short enough to do every day.
Practice it out loud
Each roleplay puts you in a scene with a character who pushes back the way real people do. Type or speak your lines. A coach tells you what landed.
Alex, your manager
Medium
Make your case to the room
In a team meeting, your manager Alex just said everyone needs to be in the office five days a week starting next month. Hybrid has worked fine for a year, your best focused work happens at home, and a couple of others looked uneasy but said nothing. Alex asks if there are any thoughts.
AI roleplay · 3 to 5 min
Paul, your manager
Hard
Fix the error, save face
In a team meeting, your manager Paul just confidently told everyone the client deadline is the end of the month. You know it's actually next Friday, two weeks earlier, and the room is about to plan around the wrong date. You need to correct him now, in front of everyone, without making him look foolish.
AI roleplay · 3 to 5 min
Announcer Studio
Pick a scene, read the script as it scrolls, and get your pace, filler count and longest pause back with a coach's note.
CONFERENCE ROOM
Present the quarterly results.
“Morning, everyone. Thanks for making time. I know it's a busy week, so I'll keep this moving.…”
Read aloud · about 70s
WEDDING RECEPTION
Toast your best friend.
“Good evening, everyone. For those who don't know me, my name's Alex,…”
Read aloud · about 70s
MAIN STAGE
Open your TED talk.
“Ten years ago, I made the biggest mistake of my career. It cost my company two million dollars,…”
Read aloud · about 70s
GRADUATION DAY
Send off the graduates.
“Graduates, families, faculty. Good morning, and congratulations.…”
Read aloud · about 75s
AWARDS NIGHT
Accept your award.
“Thank you. Thank you so much. Please, sit down, you'll make this worse.…”
Read aloud · about 70s
THE KEYNOTE
Unveil the new product.
“Thank you. Thank you for being here. Three years ago, we started working on something new.…”
Read aloud · about 70s
What to say
Steal them or make them yours. Every script comes in warm, playful and direct, with a note on why it works.
Script
A senior person just aimed a question directly at you in front of everyone, and your mind has produced nothing but the sound of your own heartbeat.
Three ways to say it (warm, playful, direct) plus why each works. Unlocks in Volo.
Script
Someone just spotlighted you in a meeting or a toast, every head turned your way, and your face is deciding between fifteen expressions.
Three ways to say it (warm, playful, direct) plus why each works. Unlocks in Volo.
Free script
You were mid-point, someone talked over you, and now the conversation is moving on with your sentence still hanging there unfinished.
“Hold that thought, I want to land my last point first. Then I'm curious where you're going with that.”
Script
The meeting is nodding along and you lost the thread five minutes ago. Asking feels like broadcasting that you're the slowest person in the room.
Three ways to say it (warm, playful, direct) plus why each works. Unlocks in Volo.
Questions
Yes, when you practise in Announcer Studio or speak in a roleplay. Recordings stay in your app, and you can replay your saved takes in My Takes.
Very. The Office Presentation and Product Launch scenes are written for that, and the lessons cover structure, opening strong, closing with impact and handling Q&A.
About one minute per scene. Most people do one or two a day.
The Gate Announcer scene and the Controlling Nerves lesson are free. The other 14 scenes and 10 lessons unlock with the 7-day free trial.
Volo is free to try for 7 days on iPhone. Start with the free lessons, then unlock everything when you are ready.
4.9 ★ on the App Store · iPhone · 7-day free trial