What building an English-speaking app taught us about confidence

Before SpeakingLab, we built an app called Boli. The idea was simple: most people in India who want to speak English better don’t need more grammar. They need more speaking. So Boli gave people things to say out loud, every day, and ways to keep at it.

People used it. Some used it every day. And it taught us something we didn’t expect.

Practising alone works, up to a point

Daily practice did what it should. People got faster at finding words. Their fillers dropped. They could answer “Tell me about yourself” smoothly at home.

Then they’d tell us about the interview, or the client call, or the meeting where they were finally asked for their view. And it was the same story we’d heard for years: “I knew what to say. It just didn’t come out.”

The problem wasn’t the words. It was the person watching.

The missing piece was a listener

Speaking to an app, or a mirror, or an empty room, is a different skill from speaking while someone looks at you and waits. Your heart rate goes up. Your mind starts editing every sentence. The words you had a minute ago go somewhere else.

You can’t simulate that alone. You can only get used to it, by doing it in front of people, again and again, somewhere it’s safe to get it wrong.

Some of us had seen this first-hand running a Toastmasters club for over two years, and running speaking workshops for one of India’s biggest coding communities. The people who improved fastest weren’t the ones who prepared the most. They were the ones who spoke most often in front of others.

So we built the room

That’s what SpeakingLab is. Small groups, live online, for India and the UAE. Everyone speaks in every session, usually within the first ten minutes. Games that make you speak before you feel ready. Feedback from a person, out loud, not a score from a machine in the room.

We kept one thing from the app: measurement. Everyone is scored on the same six skills at the start and the end, Structure, Clarity, Pace and Pauses, Listening, Presence, and Handling Pushback, so you can see whether it worked instead of just hoping it did. And for practice between sessions, there’s still a free speaking score you can use any time.

If you used Boli

Thank you. A lot of what we learned came from you, and Boli has grown into SpeakingLab. The quickest way to see what changed is the free Open Mic: one session, no preparation, and you’ll speak in the first ten minutes.

What this means for you, even if you never used either

If you are practising English speaking on your own, keep going: it builds the foundation. But don’t stop there. At some point, add people. A friend, a study group, a club, a practice group. It will feel uncomfortable at first. That discomfort is the part that transfers to the interview.

For a plan you can start today, read how to learn to speak English as an adult, or, if you have an interview coming up, our 30-day interview English plan.

Frequently asked questions

What happened to Boli?

Boli, the English-speaking practice app at tryboli.in, grew into SpeakingLab. The same team now runs live small-group speaking practice online for India and the UAE, with a free first session called the Open Mic.

Is SpeakingLab the same as Boli?

SpeakingLab is built by the team behind Boli. Boli focused on practising spoken English alone; SpeakingLab focuses on practising in front of real people in small live groups, scored at the start and the end, with a free AI speaking score for practice in between.