ConvoLive

What ConvoLive is

ConvoLive is a free language app for speaking practice, made by Maui Labs LLC. Its own one-line description is "an immersive language app using avatars to teach quickly and effectively." Learners talk out loud with AI characters in a small virtual town, completing everyday goals in the language they are learning, and the characters answer what was actually said rather than following a script. It runs in a web browser and on iOS and Android, and the practice languages are English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, German, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and Korean, with more announced as coming.

The product is for individual learners, specifically, in the company's words, "people who can read a language better than they can speak it, and want somewhere private to be bad at it first." The site also links to pages for schools and teams and for partnerships.

The town and Story Mode

The core of the app is a story. The home page sets it up: "You step off the train with a suitcase and nowhere to sleep." First you talk your way into a room at the guesthouse, a hot dinner and a SIM card; later it is your name on a form at the town hall, a flat of your own, and a neighbor who wants to know who moved in. Things go wrong and you sort them out, and you choose what to take on next. The home page counts 100 conversations between the night you arrive and your first full year in town. A blog post dated September 16, 2026 introduced this as Story Mode, saying ConvoLive "now opens in a small town."

The people in town are what make it different from a chat window. Twenty people live there. They remember what you tell them: tell Emma where you are from and she brings it up the next time you stop by the café. When a conversation ends, the app shows what that person will remember about you, and your hearts with them go up. Some stay polite acquaintances and some become friends who start talking to you like one. The company's argument is that speaking practice needs someone to talk to and a reason to come back tomorrow, and the town supplies both.

How a conversation works

Each conversation opens with a short list of goals, for example "Order three apples. Ask for the total." A goal ticks off the moment you accomplish it in conversation. Nothing is scripted and nobody tells you which words to use, so the tick shows you got there yourself, and it also tells you when the conversation is done. The comparison page describes the same loop from another angle: you watch a real conversation, then have it yourself, out loud, with an objective to finish.

Speaking is not optional. "You cannot type your way through a conversation here," the home page says: every turn is spoken, and the app needs a microphone, though any phone, tablet or laptop microphone works. The reasoning is that reading and speaking are separate skills, and the one learners avoid is the one that stays hard.

Help is built in for the moments you freeze. A few suggested lines are always on screen: you can play one to hear how it should sound, say it yourself, or translate it first. When what you want to say is not among them, you type it in your own language and get it back in the language you are learning without leaving the conversation. Once you stop reaching for the suggestions you can turn them off, which the site calls a better measure of progress than any score. Any word can be tapped for an explanation in the sense the sentence is using; the example given is Spanish "queda", which can mean "it remains", "it suits you" or "let's meet" depending on the line. A whole sentence can be tapped the same way.

Quick chat and custom scenarios

For situations the town does not cover, Quick chat offers one-off scenarios, from a food allergy at a restaurant to a haircut that went wrong. A learner can also describe the situation they are actually dreading in a sentence and get a conversation built around it; the site's example is asking your girlfriend's father for his blessing. The founder's note gives two more: negotiating a business deal in Japanese, or asking someone out in Spanish.

Price

ConvoLive is free. The FAQ answers "Is ConvoLive free?" with: "Yes. ConvoLive is completely free on iOS, Android and in your browser. There is no premium tier, no locked scenario library and no trial that expires, and there are no payment details to enter." The company is candid about the flip side: a paid lesson gets attended because you have paid for it, and a free app "cannot sell you" that obligation. What it offers instead is practice on the days between lessons.

Method and who built it

The site says "ConvoLive's method is built on published research into how people learn to speak a language" and links to a "Why it works" page. Its FAQ explains the thinking: flashcard apps train you to recognize words but do not train your mouth, and most learners can read far more than they can say, a gap only closed by producing the language out loud under something like real conditions.

The founder, Ben Ward of Maui Labs, explains the motivation in a short note. As a foreign exchange student in Japan, despite years of study, he could not comfortably ask where the group was going or where the bathroom was. Since in-country immersion is not an option for most people and in-person language exchange can be expensive or hard to schedule, he built ConvoLive to make real conversation practice accessible.

The blog carries practical material too, including "The 12 phrases to learn before any trip, in any language", which the company says it verified for tone in nine languages. The website itself can be read in English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian and Hindi.

What users say

The home page quotes app store reviews. Emily Golden on Google Play writes: "Its something to supplement the Spanish class I am taking. Just about 10 minutes REALLY helps with what I am learning." Sharona Lynne on the App Store says: "I like the repetition through both speaking and writing." David Pickett on Google Play likes "the ability practice a specific language scenario for vocab and freeform chat".

Who it suits and who it doesn't

ConvoLive suits learners who understand more than they can say and want low-stakes, out-loud practice they can do in short sessions, alongside a class, before a trip, or on the days between tutor lessons. The town gives beginners a reason to keep returning, and the custom scenarios let more confident learners rehearse a specific conversation. Because it is free with no paid tier, there is nothing to lose by trying it.

It covers nine languages, so learners of other languages will need another tool. People who need a teacher to explain why something is wrong, or who only keep a habit when they have paid for it, will want a human tutor as well, which the company itself acknowledges.