Scriptmate vs blablabla: the two apps that rehearse and tape

Of the six apps in our rehearsal apps comparison, these are the two that do both halves of the job: rehearse the scene, then record the self-tape. That makes them the closest pair on the list, and it makes the one real difference between them worth understanding before you pick. Scriptmate is ours, so weigh what follows accordingly.

The difference: what happens on camera

Both apps solve the same problem, which is keeping the reader off your recording. They solve it in opposite ways.

blablabla cues you silently. In its self-tape mode the reader’s lines scroll on screen through a built in teleprompter, so nothing reaches the microphone because nothing is said. You read the cue, then you speak.

Scriptmate cues you out loud. The reader’s lines play only through your headphones, so you hear the other character the way you would hear a human reader, and the camera microphone never picks them up. Landscape is enforced, and your own lines stay hidden on screen so you are not reading during the take.

Which is better depends on how you want the take to feel. A silent prompt keeps your eyes on the screen for the cue. An audible reader lets you listen, and react to something you heard, which is the thing a casting director is watching for. If you want a reader you can hear while the camera rolls, that is us. If you would rather read the cue and keep the audio absolutely empty, blablabla does that well.

Where blablabla wins

Voices. Ninety plus AI voices across seventy plus languages is the strongest catalog in the category. Scriptmate reads English scripts in ten natural voices that it makes on the iPhone and plays offline once prepared, and other languages in the voices built into the iPhone, one per character. Both sets are smaller than blablabla’s, and the built in voices are plainer.

Android. blablabla has an Android build in beta. It is one of the few real options for actors without an iPhone. Scriptmate is iPhone only.

Monthly price. $6.99 a month against our $9.99. The yearly price is the same, $69.99.

A free tier. Two full scenes free. Scriptmate’s trial is seven days with everything unlocked, then paid.

Recording past the last line. The take keeps rolling after the final cue so you can hold the reaction. A small thing that is right.

Where Scriptmate wins

The audible reader on camera. Covered above. This is the reason to pick Scriptmate.

Cue detection through the whole line. Scriptmate follows your speech word by word, so it keeps up when you paraphrase, restart or take a note mid take. blablabla’s speech detection waits for you too; the guide notes it as a yes, and we have not tested how it handles a paraphrased line.

Photos of paper sides. Scriptmate imports a PDF or photos of printed sides and marks your lines automatically.

Voices without a download. The reader uses voices already on the iPhone, so there is nothing to generate first. blablabla needs an internet connection to generate voices before it can play offline.

Which one to get

• You want to hear the reader while you record. Scriptmate.
• You are on Android. blablabla, accepting the beta.
• You want the largest voice catalog or a language we do not cover. blablabla.
• You want the cheapest monthly plan. blablabla. Yearly, they cost the same.

The other four apps, including coldRead and Rehearsal Pro, are in the rehearsal apps comparison.