Whispp Panel Review
Review updated:
Whispp is a smartphone app that can make you sound louder and clearer in phone calls, video calls and voice recordings. While half of our reviewers said the app improved their voice quality over the phone, others found the app to be a poor fit for their symptoms.
Highs
- Detailed videos to help get started
- Half found their voice sounded louder and clearer with the app
- Video calls and voice recordings are free
Lows
- Recipients see an unfamiliar number when you call them
- Whispp can’t answer incoming calls unless they’re made through the app
- Paid monthly subscription is expensive
- Friends and family members will need to pay to initiate phone calls if they use their included 30 minutes
Meet our review panel
The six reviewers in our panel were asked to test out Whispp for four weeks before sharing their feedback with us.
Symptoms: Our reviewers are living with a wide range of Parkinson’s symptoms, including speech problems such as low volume, slurred speech, dysphonia, stuttering, fast speaking and freezing.
Tech confidence rating: Ranges from unconfident to very confident
Location: County Durham, Cumberland, Greater London, Hampshire, Kent and Suffolk
Gender
- Men: 5
- Women: 1
Age range
Years since diagnosis
Background
Whispp is a smartphone app designed to make your voice sound clearer. The technology works in real-time
during telephone and video conversations, and can be applied to voice recordings that can be played out loud and shared through instant messaging apps.
The app was developed in 2020 by Joris Castermans. Joris struggled with a stutter throughout his childhood and teenage years which became a major obstacle in expressing himself.
Whispp uses artificial intelligence (AI) to convert soft or unclear speech into loud and clear speech. You can choose from a selection of men’s and women’s preset voices or create your own personal voice in the app. You can then start a call or record a voice message and convert them into your chosen voice by holding the phone 5-10cm away from your mouth.
Whispp supports a variety of accents, including Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. However, not all countries support phone calls from the app.
“We enable people with voice disabilities and people who stutter severely to express themselves and empower them in their daily lives and work,” says Joris.
First impressions
Instructions and set-up
When you first open the app, Whispp provides videos to help you get set up. This includes including recording your first voice message and creating a personal voice. You can also tap the question mark in the top corner of any tab to learn more about that feature.
Most of our reviewers found the instructions and the set-up process to be “very” or “fairly clear”.
One person said that the language spoken in their video demonstration was not English, but was able to find the instructions in English online. They said it wasn’t a major problem and was soon sorted. Thankfully, it seemed to be an anomaly, with none of our other reviewers reporting an issue.
Another reviewer didn’t realise the app could record their voice and so initially spent time researching how to record a voice memo on their phone. “I felt ready to give up if I couldn’t even manage the first stage.”
However, once they realised they could record their voice directly in the app, they found the set-up fairly easy.
Another person had trouble finding their contacts to make a call as the app didn’t have access to them. To grant the app access to your contacts, you can tap Contacts at the bottom of the screen and follow the instructions onscreen.
Two reviewers encountered technical issues that caused the app to freeze while setting it up. One mentioned having to re-record voice samples, while the other found the sign-up screen slow to react: “I think I made a mistake initially with my email address but it just refused to respond.”
Preset vs personal voices
You can customise how you sound when speaking through Whispp. The app offers a variety of men’s and women’s voices with different accents, or you can create a personal voice that’s meant to resemble your own.
To create a personal voice, you’ll need to take a few minutes to read aloud a series of sentences from the app. Whispp will then create a synthetic voice that’s meant to sound similar to your natural one.
You can also create a personal voice using old recordings made outside the app, if you have them. This helps the generated voice sound closer to what you used to sound like.
I couldn’t get used to the AI-generated voices but I’m thinking that was my own inner self rejecting the voices as strange and not representing me.
One reviewer commented that the preset men’s and women’s voices sounded “almost indistinguishable” from real voices. “My partner knew immediately it was an AI-generated voice but was impressed with the quality.”
Others said the presets sounded a bit “odd” or “strange”.
One person complained that they were “very America-orientated”, with just three men’s UK voices available compared to eight men’s US voices. They were also unimpressed with how they sounded: “I tried lots of them and none of them reduced sibilance or reduced my stutter.”
Another reviewer, who can feel embarrassed of their stutter when talking to new people, said it took a few days to feel comfortable using a different voice. They ultimately chose to create a personal voice and were told by others that the result sounded similar to their real voice. “I couldn’t get used to the AI-generated [voices] but I’m thinking that was my own inner self rejecting the voices as strange and not representing me.”
It sounded exactly like my voice but much clearer to other people and louder…everyone thought it was impressive.
One reviewer, who sometimes needs to signal when they want to speak, disliked both of the women’s UK voices. They said their voice remained “weak and didn’t seem to be easier to understand” when using them.
This person also preferred the personal voice option: “It sounded exactly like my voice but much clearer to other people and louder…everyone thought it was impressive.”
However, some of our reviewers did not like their custom-made voice.
“My recipients said that they couldn’t tell any difference,” said one reviewer.
“My family found it even harder to understand me [and] preferred it when I used my own voice,” said another.
Daily use
While you can use Whispp to call anyone, whether or not they have the app, receiving calls is a different story. For your voice to be made clearer, you either need to be the one making the call or the caller needs to download the Whispp app too. Doing so lets them initiate video calls and see your caller ID.
One reviewer said it was “a major problem” that you can’t receive calls from people through Whispp if they don’t have the app on their end. This means you typically can’t use the technology when picking up calls from the hospital or businesses.
No caller ID
The absence of caller ID in outgoing calls is another issue that was flagged by multiple reviewers.
When you make calls to people with the app, they can see the name you’ve set in your profile. However, calls you make through Whispp don’t use your normal phone number. Instead, the app has its own phone number. This means anyone you call who doesn’t have the app will see an unfamiliar number, which could make them reluctant to answer.
One reviewer, who stopped attending pub quizzes because their quiet voice was ignored, described using the app to call their wife upstairs. When their wife saw that an unfamiliar number was calling, she decided not to pick up.
She said the AI voice that explained that the call was coming from her husband “was not sufficiently clear” and that “you need to warn recipients in advance” to expect a call from an unknown number.
For one reviewer, who finds their stutter frustrating when expressing something important, the issue extended beyond calling friends and family. “Companies or the council were unable to call me back because I didn’t leave my original phone number in the answer phone message.”
Another reviewer said it was “a challenge” to get their partner to download the app, explaining that “he got very confused and annoyed by the app” because it asked for too much personal information. “I found it extremely difficult to ask people to download the app. I felt it was an invasive process that I was unhappy doing.”
They also commented that the AI-generated message that explained the call was coming from their partner was “garbled and put people off”, while another of their friends described it as “spooky.”
Did it help?
I hadn’t really realised that I avoided using the phone until I started using the app. Perhaps it would have made me feel less lonely if I had been offered the facility earlier in my Parkinson’s journey.
At the end of the review period, three of the six reviewers were either “fairly” or “very satisfied” with Whispp.
One reviewer, whose voice can be quiet and slurred, said the app was “reliable” and that phone calls sounded clear. “I didn’t feel the exhaustion that phoning usually leaves me with.”
Because of their speech, this reviewer usually avoids phone calls. Instead, their husband speaks on their behalf, or they opt to text and email when they can.
“I hadn’t really realised that I avoided using the phone until I started using the app. Perhaps it would have made me feel less lonely if I had been offered the facility earlier in my Parkinson’s journey.”
Another person worried less when making a call through Whispp because they knew the app would help when they reached the stressful parts of a conversation where they would typically stutter or become less clear.
Two people said the app made little difference to their voices. “I can see how it might be useful to anyone with profound loss of speech,” said one. “It might still bring benefits in the future if my voice continues to deteriorate.”
However, one reviewer who finds it very hard to communicate with people reported feeling “very unsatisfied” with the app.
“I could not sustain the hold of 5cm-10cm away from my mouth because of my tremors and I kept cutting people off,” said the 75-year-old. “I’m sure it must be suitable for someone who has less physical symptoms.”
While Whispp’s instructions direct you to speak into your phone’s built-in microphone, you should be able to use a wired or wireless headset with the app. This would help to keep the microphone near your mouth even if you have tremors in your arms.
Value
Whispp is free to download and includes unlimited video calls in the app, unlimited voice message recordings and 30 minutes of call time to begin with.
If you would like to increase your call time, the Calls Basic plan comes with 60 minutes of calls at £19.99 per month. For heavier users, the Calls Plus plan includes 120 minutes of calls and costs £39.99 per month.
Friends and family can download the app for free. They’ll be able to answer calls you make in the app and start video calls. However, if they want to call you, they’ll need to have their own subscription once they’ve used the initial 30 minutes.
I would not take out a subscription for myself at this time but would definitely use [it] in the future should my condition deteriorate.
While our review panel generally thought the app was worth trying for free, they agreed that the paid plans were much too expensive.
“I think it is good that it is free to download with 30 minutes of free call time,” said one reviewer. “The problem is that I couldn’t use the Whispp app for hospital calls as my number didn’t come up. I also tried it when ringing [a] Parkinson’s UK regional advisor and it wouldn’t allow her to answer. So for the most important things it was no use. It was great for ringing my friends but not at that price.”
Three people said that, while they wouldn’t pay for Whispp now, they might consider doing so in the future.
“I would not take out a subscription for myself at this time but would definitely use [it] in the future should my condition deteriorate,” said one reviewer whose stutter occurs less when they talk about things they enjoy, like photography.