How to Choose a Teleprompter App: 7 Criteria

<h2>1. Live speed control</h2>

The clearest sign of a good prompter: you change pace while reading, without leaving record mode. A fixed speed set in advance is almost always slightly wrong.

<h2>2. Typography and line length</h2>

Large type, adjustable line height, and a limited column width beat any visual effect. A line of five to eight words is read in one glance; a wide line forces your eyes to travel and gives the reading away.

<h2>3. Mirror mode</h2>

Needed only with beam-splitter glass. Shooting straight off a phone, you will not use it — but its presence shows the app was built for studio work too.

<h2>4. Script privacy</h2>

Scripts are often confidential: product announcements, legal advice, medical explanations. Check where the text is stored. A prompter that keeps scripts on the device and never uploads them removes an entire class of risk.

<h2>5. Works offline, with no account</h2>

Shoots happen in basements, on planes, and in fields without signal. An app that demands a login and a network fails exactly then. No mandatory sign-up is a win for both privacy and speed.

<h2>6. A script library</h2>

Past five scripts you need folders, search, and quick access to the last one you opened. Otherwise you will keep pasting text from notes and losing versions.

<h2>7. In-frame controls</h2>

Pause, jump back a couple of lines, tap or gesture start, a countdown before recording. Anything that keeps you from reaching into the shot.

<h2>A five-minute test</h2>

<ul><li>Paste a real script, not a test sentence.</li><li>Read a paragraph aloud and change the speed mid-way.</li><li>Turn off the internet and repeat.</li><li>Watch the footage: can you tell you were reading?</li></ul>

If you do not want to go back to your notes after that, the prompter is right for you. Everything else — themes, effects, export — is nice but secondary.