Best Apps to Stop Saying Um and Reduce Filler Words in 2026

Live or afterwards: the choice that matters most

Filler-word apps work in one of two ways, and they suit different people.

• Live counters buzz, flash or show a warning while you talk. They break the habit fast, because you notice each "um" as it happens. The downside: they can make you so self-conscious that you lose your thread.
• After-the-fact reports let you speak normally, then show how many fillers you used and where. They're better for seeing patterns, such as "most of my 'likes' come in the first ten seconds of an answer".

The second question is whether you practice alone or in conversation. Most people use far fewer fillers in a prepared speech than when answering a question they didn't expect. If your "ums" show up in meetings and interviews, practice in a conversation.

We make Speaking Coach, one of the apps below. We checked every other app's own App Store page or site in October 2026 and state only what we saw.

Compared

The live counters

Speeko tracks your voice in real time with short alerts, then reviews pace, filler words, intonation and word choice. It runs on iOS, Android, Mac and the web.

PowerPoint Speaker Coach shows on-screen guidance as you rehearse a deck, then a report that includes filler words. It's free in preview with a Microsoft account, but works only in English.

LikeSo 2.0 is a new listing from Say It Media, the publisher of the original LikeSo. Version 2.0 appeared on the US App Store on September 28, 2026. It describes real-time speech analysis, goals, and three practice modes (MyPitch, FreeStyle and TalkAbout). It's free and English only.

The Um Detector listens for "um", "like", "right" and "you know", plus custom words, and makes each one flash red while your phone vibrates. The free version allows 5 minutes a day. Its last update on the App Store was in November 2023.

The after-the-fact reports

Orai scores filler words along with pace, clarity, energy, confidence and conciseness after each recording, with a transcript to see where they happened. English only.

Yoodli produces a speaking report with pacing and filler words after each session, for talks and for roleplays on the web.

Huru shows filler words and hedging phrases in the debrief after an AI mock interview. Free, but only for interviews.

Speaking Coach (ours) counts your filler words after a real conversation: an interview that follows up, a stranger at a party, a manager asking for an update. The report shows fillers alongside your pace, long pauses and tips that quote what you actually said, then lets you retry the moment where the fillers piled up. It works in 20 languages, which matters because fillers differ by language: Spanish speakers say "este" and "o sea", French speakers "euh" and "du coup". The free voice review inside ChatGPT counts fillers in English recordings.

Older filler apps you may have read about

Two apps often recommended in older articles have changed:

• Ummo, an older iPhone filler-word app, did not appear in our search of the US App Store in October 2026.
• LikeSo's original App Store listing no longer returns a result in the US store. Its publisher has released LikeSo 2.0 instead, covered above.

Poised, which counted fillers during video calls on Mac and Windows, showed a banner in October 2026 saying it was shutting down on 10/8/2026.

How to use any of these well

1. Measure first. Speak for two minutes on an easy topic, like your job or your weekend, and count. Don't try to change anything yet.
2. Find your one main filler. Most people have one or two that make up most of the count.
3. Replace it with a pause. A one-second silence sounds calm to the listener. It feels much longer to you.
4. Practice the first sentence. Fillers cluster at the start of answers, while you search for a way in.
5. Move from solo to conversation. Once your prepared speech is clean, practice answering questions you didn't expect.

Speech recognition often leaves "um" and "uh" out of transcripts, so most counters undercount them. Treat a low number as a good sign, not proof. Our guide on how to stop saying um goes deeper on the pause technique.