iUmmm Unique App To Help You Improve Public Speaking and Presentation Abilities

iUmmm [rating: 2.5/5]

Many applications in the App Store these days are simply re-workings of the same things. iUmmm however is, as far as I can see, completely unique, for iUmmm is an application to help anyone and everyone improve on their public speaking and presentation abilities by rating you as you practice your speech or presentation and then report back on how you did, specifically in regard to the use of those vocal pauses that can bring any speech down to it’s knees.

iummmThe iUmmm application allows you to track up to 5 of what you consider to be you most frequently used vocal pauses such as “Ummm”, “Like”, “But” etc. and while it comes preset with 5 of them you can edit them to be specific to your needs.

Starting a session couldn’t be easier, simply add your name and a name for the event that you are practicing for and you are ready to go. At this point I have to admit I was getting ready to start speaking and see the application start counting my vocal pauses. Unfortunately I was to be disappointed as the is no vocal recognition going on here, instead the app relies on manual input to increase or decrease the number of times you say the specific words you are wanting to track.

This can work if you have someone else with you who is willing to listen to you make your speech numerous times but to try and count your words as you make your speech is practically impossible and therefore the app is truly only usable with two people. If you do find someone to use the application with, and remember everything is better in two’s, you can generate some good stats.

Each session can be tracked based by name and the specific event that you are practicing for and your results are stored for your future reference allowing you to track your progress and hopefully see a reduction in your errors. The reports could certainly be better. At present you will simply get a text based report on each individually tracked session. What would be nice to see is the ability to chart your progress so that you can see at a glance how you are doing.

Your practices can also be timed and this can be especially useful if you have a time limit to meet or if you have to time your speech to coincide with other events, Again, although the overall time is recorded in each individual report it’s not possible to visually track your progress in regard to timings either in graph form.

This app has so much potential but as it is the benefit is going to be limited, if the developers can add voice recognition so that the app can be used be one person and if the reports can be improved so that all of the stats can be plotted on a graph they could be on to a winner.

At just 99 cents (iTunes Link) it may be a good idea to get in on this app on the ground floor with the anticipation of even greater functionality in a future release. At present the app gets a 2.5 out of 5 but with the successful addition of both the previously mentioned additions it would easily double it’s current rating.

The Good

  • Unique app for pubic speaking improvement
  • Track multiple speeches by person and event

The Not So Good

  • Manual tracking only
  • Limited reporting options

Reviewed by: @CraigWillis

Expedited Review: Request received on Dec 30, reviewed on Dec 31

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