Tools
The best app to stop saying um
Published October 13, 2026 · By Simón Rendón
No app will stop you saying um. What an app can do is the part people skip: count every filler, every time, without flinching, so that your practice has a feedback loop. Pick one on that basis and it earns its place. Pick one hoping it will fix you and it ends up in a folder on your third home screen.
I make Cadence, one of the apps below, so read the comparison with that in mind. The criteria come first because they apply to any app, including the one I make.
What an app can and cannot do
Herbert Clark and Jean Fox Tree’s 2002 study of spontaneous speech treats uh and um as signals that announce a coming delay while the next part of a sentence is assembled. A filler is the sound of your mouth arriving somewhere your planning has not reached yet. That is why resolving to stop rarely works, and why the fix is trading the filler for a pause, practiced until it holds under pressure.
An app cannot do that practice for you. It can make it measurable. Almost everyone underestimates their own filler rate until they hear a recording, and almost everyone stops counting by hand after a week. An honest count after every session, and a line that moves over weeks, is what keeps the practice going long enough to work.
Five things to look for
- It shows fillers in context. A number alone tells you that you said um; a transcript with every filler marked tells you where. Fillers cluster at openings, transitions, and the first seconds after a question, and you want to see the cluster. Check whether it can tell like the filler from like the verb.
- It tracks your rate over time. Your own baseline is the only number worth comparing against. Look for a filler rate per minute and a history, not a single score per session.
- It is quick enough to use daily. Short, frequent reps beat one long rehearsal a month. If a session takes more than five minutes to start, record, and review, you will stop.
- It is honest about your recordings. You will be recording yourself at your least polished. Read the privacy policy and search it for “stored”, “improve”, and “train”. Find out whether audio is kept on a server, and whether it is used to improve the company’s models.
- It is free long enough to build the habit. A week-long trial ends right when the habit is starting. A free tier you can stay on lets you find out whether you will keep practicing before you pay.
The three apps people usually compare
| Cadence | Orai | Yoodli | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A few minutes of daily practice on your phone | Structured lessons with feedback | AI roleplays of specific conversations |
| Free plan | 3 sessions a day, no time limit | 7-day trial, card required | 5 sessions in total |
| Paid | $7.99 a month or $64.99 a year | $12 a month or $49.99 a year | From $8 a month, billed annually |
| Runs on | iPhone, Android | iPhone, Android, web | Web browser and video calls |
| Audio stored on their servers | Never | May be | Yes, on Google servers |
| Used to improve their AI | Never | May be, for non-enterprise users | May be on Starter and Pro, unless you opt out |
Prices and policies as published by each company, checked October 13, 2026. Sources are linked at the end.
Cadence
Cadence is a speech practice app for iPhone and Android. You record a few minutes, it marks every um, uh, and er on your transcript and timeline, along with like, so, and you know when they are used as fillers, and it tracks your rate week over week. The free plan includes three analyzed sessions a day with no time limit. Your audio is encrypted on your phone before upload, never stored on our servers, and never used to train AI models. Premium adds short guided programs on iPhone, such as the seven-step Interview Confidence, but there is no full course of lessons.
Orai
Orai is the closest alternative: a mobile speaking coach that measures fillers, pace, and energy, with short public speaking lessons and a library of scenarios. Its yearly plan is cheaper than Cadence’s, and it has a web version. There is no free plan beyond a 7-day trial, and its privacy policy says recordings may be stored on its cloud servers and, for non-enterprise users, used to improve its speech analysis. Cadence vs Orai goes through the details.
Yoodli
Yoodli is a different kind of tool: an AI roleplay coach that runs in the browser and alongside video calls, built mainly for sales and training teams. If you want to rehearse a specific sales call or interview against an AI that talks back, it does something neither of the others does. The free plan is five sessions in total, and on its Starter and Pro plans session data may be used to improve the platform unless you opt out. Cadence vs Yoodli goes through the details.
You can do this without an app
The method works with nothing but a voice memo. Record two minutes of yourself answering a real question, listen back, and tally every filler. Divide by the minutes. Do it again tomorrow. If you want other people doing the counting, a Toastmasters club assigns a member as Ah-Counter at every meeting.
What the manual version costs is time and honesty. Counting your own fillers is tedious, and it is easy to round down. An app is worth it when it removes those two costs, and not otherwise.
Which one to pick
If you want lessons, try Orai. If you want to rehearse one specific conversation against an AI, try Yoodli. If you want a few minutes of practice every day on your phone, for free, without your recordings being kept, that is what Cadence is built for. Whichever you choose, the habit matters more than the app: record, count, replace one um with a pause, and repeat tomorrow.
Common questions
What is the best app to stop saying um?
The best one is the one you will use every day. For short daily practice on your phone, Cadence is a speech practice app that flags every filler word on your transcript, tracks your rate week over week, and has a free plan with no time limit. Orai suits people who want structured lessons, and Yoodli suits people who want to rehearse a specific conversation against an AI roleplay partner.
Is there a free app that counts filler words?
Yes. Cadence’s free plan includes three analyzed sessions a day, recordings up to three minutes, and filler detection with a score and transcript, with no time limit and no credit card. Yoodli’s free Starter plan includes five sessions in total. You can also count by hand: record two minutes on your phone’s voice memo app and tally every um as you listen back.
Can an app really help you stop saying um?
Not on its own. Um is a planning signal, so the change comes from practicing the pause that replaces it. What an app does well is the counting: an honest filler rate after every session, and a trend over weeks, which keeps the practice going long enough to work.
References: Clark, H. H., & Fox Tree, J. E. (2002). Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking. Cognition, 84(1), 73–111. Toastmasters International. Ah-Counter, club meeting roles. Orai, Pricing and Privacy Policy. Yoodli, Pricing, FAQ, and Privacy Policy. All checked October 13, 2026.