You talk out loud and Riley answers out loud, in real time, the way a phone call works — there is nothing to type. Riley is software, not a person, and will say so if you ask. That is also where the value is: Riley stays in the scene, pushes back when a real person would, and lets you run the same opening five times without anyone rolling their eyes.

Nobody at SparkTalk hears your voice. Your microphone connects straight from your browser to OpenAI, the US company whose model gives Riley its voice — the audio never passes through our servers, OpenAI sees your IP address along with it, and OpenAI's own terms apply there. What stays with us is the written transcript, on servers in Frankfurt, plus the summaries and feedback built from it, so your next session knows where you left off. The transcript deletes itself 30 days after the session ends — you never have to ask. And under Account & privacy you can export everything we hold, or delete your account and everything in it, yourself: no email, no waiting.

Yes, any time, in the Stripe customer portal — no email, no phone call. You enter a card to start and the first 3 days are free: cancel inside them and nothing is charged. Cancel later and you keep full access until the end of the period you already paid for; nothing is switched off mid-month. During the trial you can work up to five practice scenarios a day; a subscription lifts that limit. Worth knowing up front: the free trial is granted once per program. If you cancel and come back later, the next subscription is charged straight away.

The first two minutes feel strange for almost everyone, and then they stop. Riley waits, does not interrupt, and does not mind long pauses or a sentence that goes nowhere. You can stop mid-scene, say “again”, and replay the same moment as often as you like. Nobody is watching. What you get out of it is practice, not a new personality — and awkward practice still counts.