→ English learners get personalised pronunciation feedback from a human teacher in the app Spoken.

The video covers the following:

It includes reviews of Elsa, TalkPal, Bold Voice, Loora, and Pronuncia.

• Apps are helpful but limited:

They can usually tell if your speech is understandable, which is useful for basic communication.

• Accuracy issues:

Apps sometimes correctly detect mispronunciations but also make mistakes.

This inconsistency undermines confidence in their feedback.

• Teaching value varies:

Some apps (Bold Voice, Pronuncia) explain how to fix mistakes.

Others (Loora, TalkPal, MakesYouFluent) only point out errors without teaching how to improve.

• These apps neglect rhythm, stress, and connected speech:

Pronunciation is not just about sounds but also stress patterns and blending words naturally.

Apps often penalize natural reductions (e.g., pronouncing *and* as *un*) or ignore incorrect stress placement, leading to unnatural speech habits.

• Accent bias:

Most apps judge only against American English and may flag correct British pronunciations as “wrong.”

Bold Voice is an exception in being clear about its focus.

• Underlying technology:

Many apps use the same external speech assessment systems (e.g., Microsoft, SpeechAce), so their quality is similar and progress over the years has been limited.