Poised Shut Down. Here's How to Keep Improving the Way You Speak
If you used Poised, you already know: the company announced that its service was retiring in October 2026. For a lot of people, that meant losing the quiet nudge that told them they were talking too fast or saying "um" too often on calls.
The habits you were building don't have to stop with it. Here's what Poised did, what's worth replacing, and how to keep improving.
What Poised did well
Poised ran alongside your video calls on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, and Slack. While you talked, it gave you private, real-time feedback on your pace, filler words, and confidence. After the meeting, it showed analytics so you could see patterns over time.
That combination worked because it caught you in the moment. Most people have no idea how often they say "like" or "you know" until something counts for them.
What you actually need to replace
Before picking a new tool, it helps to separate the two jobs Poised was doing:
- Awareness. Noticing your filler words, pacing, and energy so you know what to fix.
- Improvement. Actually changing those habits, which takes repetition.
Live feedback during real meetings is great for awareness. But it's a hard place to improve, because your attention belongs to the conversation, not the coaching. The fastest way to change a speaking habit is to practice somewhere the stakes are low, get feedback, and do it again.
Options worth considering
Recorded speech analysis tools. Apps like Orai let you record yourself and get feedback on filler words, pace, and energy afterward. They're useful for presentations and practice speeches, though they don't simulate a back-and-forth conversation.
Communication training platforms. Yoodli offers speech analysis and AI roleplays, and includes a desktop app that can analyze your side of video calls. It has individual plans and is increasingly focused on enterprise training.
AI conversation practice. SpeechPlus takes a different approach. Instead of grading you in the middle of a real meeting, it lets you rehearse the conversation before it happens. You speak out loud with an AI that responds in real time, then get scored on clarity, confidence, pacing, and filler words. It has a native iOS app, so you can practice before a call from wherever you are.
Why practicing before the conversation works
Live feedback helps you notice your habits. The next step is giving yourself enough reps to change them.
When you practice with SpeechPlus, you can:
- Rehearse the exact conversation you have coming up, from a job interview to a tough one-on-one, using ready-made or custom scenarios
- Get delivery feedback on filler words, pacing, and clarity after every session
- Track improvement over time, so you can see your filler words drop from one week to the next
- Walk in prepared, with Meeting Prep helping you plan what to say before you practice saying it
Your audio is never stored. Speech is converted to text for feedback and then discarded.
The habit is what matters
The best thing Poised did was make people pay attention to how they sound. Keep that going. Pick a tool, schedule a few minutes of practice before the conversations that matter, and track your progress. A few weeks of deliberate reps will do more than any amount of feedback you only see after the fact.