Getting started
OffBookly is an app that lets actors rehearse lines out loud without a scene partner in the room. Upload a script, pick your character, and every other role is read aloud to you in a natural voice. The app listens for your line and moves on when you land it. It also handles monologues (beat work), flashcards, hands-free rehearsal on CarPlay and the lock screen, and Scene Partner, where a real person's recording replaces the Reader. It was built by an actor and casting director.
Yes. OffBookly is free to download and use: up to three new projects a month and five scene rehearsals a day, plus daily monologue practice and flashcard drills. OffBookly Pro removes those limits and unlocks sharing scenes with a Scene Partner. Pro is $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year (USD; local pricing may vary). If a friend shares a scene with you, rehearsing it is free and unlimited.
Not yet. OffBookly is on the App Store today, and it runs on CarPlay. Android is on the list. If that's you, join the Discord or email support@offbookly.com and we'll tell you the moment it ships.
Tap the plus button and choose a PDF from Files, or use “Open with” from Mail, Drive, or any app that holds your sides. For a monologue you can also type or paste the text. Parsing takes about thirty seconds: the app finds the characters, you tap yours, pick a voice, set a goal, and you're rehearsing. If a PDF lives in iCloud and hasn't been downloaded to your phone, download it first.
Yes. Drop in a feature-length screenplay and OffBookly splits it into scenes and pulls every scene you're in. Each scene becomes its own rehearsal inside one script card, with the same setup: who you play, a voice for everyone else, and a goal.
Yes. Sign in with Apple, Google, Facebook, or email. Your projects, recordings, and progress are tied to that account. You can delete your account and all of its data yourself at any time from Settings.
Partly. Once a scene's audio has been generated it is stored on your phone, so a scene you have already run keeps working without a connection, and so does the built-in sample scene. A Scene Partner scene works offline once it's downloaded. Uploading and parsing a new script needs a connection.
Running lines
While you rehearse, the app listens and matches what you say against the script. When you land your line, the scene moves on to the next cue. It's built to be forgiving: “OK” and “Okay,” “Mr.” and “Mister,” restarts, slow repeats, and half-finished lines are read as one turn, so it waits for you rather than judging your first attempt. Press and hold any line afterwards to compare what you said against the script, word by word.
Say “hint line” and you'll hear your next three words; say it again for the full line. You can also swipe up on the screen. To move on without saying the line, say “skip line.” Both phrases can be changed in Settings if they collide with words in your script.
Yes. During setup you can cast every role individually, so a two-hander sounds like two people and a family dinner sounds like a family. Cast everyone and the single app-voice picker steps aside. You can change any voice later.
Yes. Select all of your characters during setup. The app reads everyone else and waits for you on each of your roles, in order.
Yes. Open the scene and tap the three dots in the top-right corner of the rehearsal page — that's editing mode. Tap any line's text box to fix the words. Tap or drag down the checkboxes to select a run of lines and delete them. Tap Trim to cut everything before your first entrance; your cue line stays. Scripts change; nothing is locked.
During setup you choose how many clean runs it takes to call the scene done. A clean run is a full pass where you landed every line. The app counts them for you, and there's a small celebration when you get there. You can change the goal at any time.
Yes. Switch the rehearsal view to voice-only and it's just you and the cues. In the chat view, blue marks the Reader's turn and yellow marks yours. Or lock the phone and put it in your pocket — see the hands-free questions below.
Hands-free: car, walk, pocket
Yes. OffBookly runs on CarPlay. Your scenes appear on the car screen, cues play through the car speakers — the Reader's voice or your scene partner's real recording — and the scene advances as you speak. It's voice-only on purpose: no text on the screen while you drive. Say “hint line” or “skip line,” and when a scene ends it replays on its own. Drive Mode plays the whole scene through if you'd rather just listen.
Yes. Lock the screen and the app keeps listening and keeps feeding you cues. Play, pause, previous, and next live on the lock screen, so you never unlock mid-run. Walk the dog, fold laundry, pace the dressing room.
Two, and they cover everything: “hint line” gives you the next three words (again for the full line), and “skip line” moves on. Both can be customised in Settings if those phrases appear in your script or just don't feel natural to say.
Monologues
In pieces. Open the Monologues tab, paste, type, or upload the speech, then use Read & Mark to cut it into beats: tap a blue dot between thoughts and write what the character wants right there — the intention. Then practice in three modes of rising difficulty: Teleprompter (full text), Beat Work (five rounds per beat, each hiding more, until only your intention is left), and Full Run. Your mastery grows with every clean full run. For the method behind all of this, read how working actors actually memorize lines.
A beat is one thought, one thing the character is trying to do. Beat work means dividing a speech into those units and naming the intention under each one — an action, not an emotion: “to warn him,” not “angry.” It's table work without calling it that. In OffBookly, Beat Work runs each beat through five rounds: gaps, first letters, anchor words, and finally just the intention with no words at all. Play the intention and the words follow.
Yes. Verse stays verse: line breaks are kept in Beat Work and Read & Mark, with a Verse/Prose toggle, because where the line turns is information. The app understands Early Modern English when you say it out loud — elisions, accented endings like “unraisèd,” and archaic spellings — and shows the original spelling on screen.
Yes. Paste it, type it, or upload it — all three work. If you upload a PDF that turns out to be a one-person piece, the app will notice and offer to treat it as a monologue.
Scene Partner
Send them the scene. Pick the scene, set the parts — you, your partner, and anyone the app should read — record your side, and share the six-character code by text or as a link. They tap it, record their lines on their own time, and send it back. From then on, every line you hear in their part is their real voice, and they rehearse against yours. No scheduling, no meeting up before class.
They need the free app; the link takes them straight to the scene. Sharing a scene is a Pro feature for the person sending it. Joining a shared scene, recording your part, and rehearsing it is free and doesn't count against the daily limits.
Usually, yes. A real partner brings real choices, real pauses, real emphasis — you're reacting to a person, not a voice. The Reader is there for the hours when no one else is. Most actors use both: the Reader to get off book, Scene Partner to get the scene.
Account and privacy
Subscriptions are handled by Apple. Open Settings in OffBookly to manage your subscription, or go to your phone's Settings > your name > Subscriptions. Reinstalled or switched phones? Tap Restore Purchases in OffBookly's Settings.
Yes. Your scripts, recordings, and rehearsals are yours. They are never sold, never used for advertising, and never shared except with the scene partner you chose to send a scene to. We don't collect an advertising identifier and don't track you across other apps or websites. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
From Settings inside the app. Deleting your account removes your projects, recordings, and data. It's immediate and you don't need to email anyone.
The earliest actors on OffBookly get a permanent, numbered Founding Member badge shown in the app. If you're eligible, you can claim it in Settings.
How it compares
No — and the difference is worth thirty seconds. AI means a program that makes things up as it goes: ask it a question, it invents an answer. OffBookly never invents anything. It does two much older, much simpler jobs. First, it reads the script out loud in a natural voice — the same thing your phone does when it reads a text message aloud in the car — every word exactly as written. Second, it listens for the words of your line — the same thing your phone does when you talk instead of type. Put together, that's the Reader: it says the other roles, hears yours, and moves on when you land it. Think of a very patient reader holding the script, not an actor improvising. Your lines are never rewritten and nothing is guessed. If you searched for an “AI scene partner,” this is the category you're looking at; we just don't use the word, because it isn't what's happening. And when you'd rather hear a person, Scene Partner puts a real actor's recording where the Reader was.
Those apps play back a recording you made of the whole scene, muting your lines and leaving a timed gap for you to fill. OffBookly doesn't need you to record anything: drop in the PDF and the other roles are voiced for you. And it waits for you — the scene advances when you say your line, not when a timer runs out.
Red Alligator LLC, a small team in Los Angeles led by an actor who got tired of rehearsing into the silence. Questions, bugs, and ideas go to support@offbookly.com. Every message gets read.