IELTS Speaking AI Practice
Last updated: 27 September 2026
This is the part of the app that involves the most of your data, so it is described first and in full.
Speech is not transcribed on your device. Earlier versions of this policy said it was; that stopped being true on 29 August 2026, and this policy was corrected on 2 September 2026.
Choosing a speech-to-text service. Before we use Cloudflare to mark answers, we test how accurately it transcribes real practice answers compared with OpenAI. For that test we send a sample of recent recordings to Cloudflare, with no name, email, account number or device identifier attached. The results are used only to choose a service and to check that marking stays fair, and our copies of the results are deleted within 14 days.
We send the content of your answer and nothing that identifies you. Your name, email address, account number and device identifiers are not included in any request to OpenAI, Cloudflare, DeepSeek or Anthropic.
| Provider | What it receives | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI or Cloudflare |
The audio file of a single practice answer | Speech-to-text transcription |
| DeepSeek or Anthropic |
The practice question, the text transcript of your answer, and — for the weekly study plan only — your target band, your average scores, how many practice sessions you have completed, your practice streak, your daily goal in minutes and the number of days until your test date | Band estimate, written feedback, improved-answer rewrite, follow-up questions, weekly study plan |
Please note: the transcript is a record of what you actually said. IELTS Speaking questions ask about your hometown, your work or studies and your family, so your answers may themselves contain personal details. Those details are sent as part of the transcript.
These providers process data outside your country, and, depending on where you live, outside your region's data-protection area:
api.deepseek.comBy using the AI scoring features you are sending your practice answers to be processed in those countries.
We can tell you what we do, and we describe our own practice precisely. What each provider does after it receives a request is governed by that provider's own terms, which they can change, and which we are not in a position to guarantee here.
If you use peer speaking practice, your display name, country and average band are shown to the person you are matched with. Peer calls are not recorded, and no AI provider receives anything from them.
Chat messages between friends are deleted after 7 days. If you edit or delete a message, its earlier text is kept hidden, for the rest of that message's 7 days, so that a report about the conversation can still be reviewed. Neither of you can see it.
Message notifications. When a friend messages you and the app is closed, we send a notification through Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google). It always contains the sender's name and a link to their profile photo, if they have one. If you turn on "Show message text" in Settings → Notifications, it also contains the message itself, so the message travels through Google's notification service and can be read on your lock screen by anyone holding your phone. This setting is off unless you turn it on. We do not store the message text in our notification records.
We may change which AI scoring provider is used. This page names the provider in use and is updated when that changes.
Your data is kept while your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from Settings → Account → Delete Account inside the app.
Deleting your account removes your voice recordings from Firebase Storage, your Firebase sign-in identity, and your transcripts, scores, progress history, journal notes, bookmarks, friendships, chat messages, vocabulary progress, study plan, notification history and registered devices from our database.
The recordings and the sign-in identity are removed by a background task queued the moment the account is deleted. It retries if Firebase is temporarily unreachable, so the removal may complete a little after the rest.
Three things are handled differently, and we would rather say so than claim a clean sweep:
We may suspend an account that breaks our rules or is used to misuse the service. While an account is suspended the app cannot be used with it, and we send it no notifications. Nothing is deleted: recordings, scores, credits and subscriptions are kept, and everything works again if the suspension is lifted. You can still delete a suspended account: from the app if you are signed in, or by emailing us at the address below.
You can delete your account and the data described above at any time from inside the app. For any other request about your data — access, correction, or a question about this policy — email us at the address below.
This app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Questions about this policy? Email support@ielts.sptv.info.