Scriptmate vs coldRead: two cue detection readers compared

coldRead is the app Backstage put at the top of its line memorization list, and it is the app we recommend most often after our own. Both apps do the thing that separates a rehearsal app from a recording: they listen for you and answer when you finish. So this comparison is about the details inside that category. Scriptmate is ours, so hold what follows to that standard.

What each one listens for

This is the difference that matters most. coldRead listens for the cue word at the end of your line and reads the next line back, like a patient reader. Say the last word and the scene moves.

Scriptmate follows your speech word by word through the whole line. The reader comes in when you finish, whether you said the line as written, paraphrased it, restarted halfway, or got a note mid take. That holds up in a cold read, where you will not say anything exactly as written, and it means you can look away from the page because your ears are doing the work.

In practice: with coldRead you learn to land the last word. With Scriptmate you learn to finish the thought.

Voices, and who records them

coldRead plays recordings you make. You read every other line into the app once, it transcribes them as you go, and you can shift the pitch so the reader does not sound like you. You can also swap lines with friends so they record theirs. The read is exactly as you made it, and the setup takes as long as the scene does.

Scriptmate reads the other parts for you, a different voice per character, from the moment you import the script. English scripts get natural voices, ten American and British voices made on the iPhone once per script, which take a few minutes to prepare and then play offline. Other languages use the voices built into the iPhone, which are plainer; Apple’s enhanced voices, Personal Voice on iOS 17 or later, or your own recording of any line close some of that gap. Neither is a good human read.

Self-tape

Both apps record the self-tape. The difference is where the reader’s sound goes. In coldRead the reader’s lines play from the phone’s speaker, so the microphone records them along with you, and coldRead offers an export that improves how they sound. Scriptmate plays the reader’s lines only through your headphones, so you hear the cue and the tape does not. Landscape is enforced, and your own lines stay hidden while you record. The setup around it is in how to self-tape an audition.

Where coldRead wins

Platforms. iPhone, iPad and Apple silicon Macs, plus an Apple Watch remote, which is genuinely useful when your phone is across the room on a tripod. Scriptmate is iPhone only.

A free tier. Eight lines per scene for nothing is a real way to try cue detection before paying. Scriptmate’s trial is seven days, then a subscription.

A reader in your own voice. If you want the other parts read exactly the way you or a friend would read them, coldRead is built around that. Scriptmate can do it line by line, but its starting point is the app’s own voices.

Time on the market. coldRead has years of actors behind it. Scriptmate is the newest app on the list.

Which one to get

• You want to try cue detection for free, or you rehearse on an iPad or Mac. coldRead.
• You do not want to record the other lines before you rehearse. Scriptmate, which voices them for you.
• You paraphrase, cold read, or get direction mid take. Scriptmate, because the reader follows the whole line.
• You want to hear the reader while the tape stays clean. Scriptmate, because the reader plays only in your headphones.

The wider field is in the rehearsal apps comparison, and the other options to coldRead specifically are in coldRead alternatives.