Why we built two scroll modes (and how to use them)

The problem we were trying to solve

When we started building Promptr, we watched creators work. Not in a focus group setting. Just... worked. A lecturer rehearsing a ten-minute talk. A podcast host with three interviews stacked back-to-back. A preacher who'd written out his sermon word-for-word for the first time in twenty years.

They all faced the same friction: if you're reading from paper or a printed slide, your eyes move down. Your head tilts slightly. Your energy flattens. But if you memorise, you either freeze under pressure or your delivery becomes robotic, all rhythm and no soul.

We built Promptr to let you read without it showing. That meant the scroll had to disappear into your performance, not fight against it. A scroll mode isn't just a technical feature. It's the difference between sounding like yourself and sounding like you're reading aloud.

Smart Scroll: let the words pull you forward

Smart Scroll is the mode we lead with because it's the most forgiving. You set your desired speed (measured in words per minute), and the script advances automatically. The text moves down the screen at that pace, whether you're reading it or not.

The trick is that Smart Scroll doesn't care if you skip a word or add one. It doesn't pause if you hesitate. It just keeps rolling. This is genuinely useful if you've rehearsed enough that you know where you're going but still want the safety rail.

A creator told us she uses Smart Scroll for interviews. She has her talking points ready, but the guest might take the conversation sideways. Smart Scroll keeps her questions moving at a natural pace without forcing her to rush or stretch to match the text. She can follow the guest and the script at once.

The speed slider lives on the recording screen, so you can adjust mid-take if you need to. Most people find their rhythm within 100-120 words per minute, but that number is almost meaningless without context. A politician delivering a statement? Closer to 110. A conversational podcast? Often 140 or higher.

Timed Scroll: rhythm through pacing

Timed Scroll is different. Instead of setting a global speed, you tell Promptr how long your entire script should take. Fourteen minutes. Nine minutes. Three and a half minutes. Promptr does the maths and distributes the scroll accordingly.

This matters because real scripts aren't uniform. You might have a slow, deliberate opening. A rapid-fire middle section. A quiet close. Timed Scroll respects that shape. It pulls you through the script at a pace that matches what you actually wrote, not an arbitrary words-per-minute number.

We added Timed Scroll because of a specific problem. A podcast host who records several episodes in one session was ending some at 28 minutes when they needed to be 22. She'd speed up, lose her voice, and have to re-record. With Timed Scroll, she set the target length once. Now the scroll paces her automatically. She sounds like herself on every episode.

The other thing Timed Scroll does is take the guesswork out of structure. You write. You guess how long it should take. You record. You're five minutes under. That's a lesson learned the expensive way. Timed Scroll lets you know before you hit record what the pacing will feel like.

When to use which (and how we learned this)

We didn't plan to explain the difference. We assumed people would pick a mode and stick with it. But support messages taught us otherwise.

Use Smart Scroll when you want control. You're doing a live recording with room for spontaneity. You've rehearsed but expect to adapt. You're interviewing someone. You want to be able to speed up or slow down without planning it in advance.

Use Timed Scroll when precision matters. You have a hard deadline: a five-minute YouTube short, a lecture slot, a podcast episode that fits a specific format. You want to know exactly how fast you'll be speaking before you start. You want the script itself to carry the pacing.

A lecturing pastor we spoke with does this: he writes his sermon, loads it into Promptr with Timed Scroll set to 28 minutes (his usual slot). He reads through once, listening to how the scroll feels at that pace. Then he re-records for real. The scroll becomes an invisible coach, telling him when to move faster or slower to stay on time.

The technical bit (why it matters to your take)

Both modes run on your iPhone or iPad. No internet required. The scroll lives on screen while the camera records, and the scroll itself never appears in your footage. That's table stakes for a teleprompter app, but it's worth saying plainly: we're not overlaying text on your video. We're running a separate display that you read from while the camera captures only you.

Smart Scroll recalculates constantly. If you pause, the text waits. If you rush, it keeps up. It's responsive. Timed Scroll is locked. You set a length, and the scroll commits to that pace. Both are live controls: if you're using Smart Scroll, that speed slider is right there on the recording screen, and you can nudge it without stopping.

The reason we gave you both is that different creators have different needs. A YouTuber making scripted videos benefits from the flexibility of Smart Scroll. A lecturer who's read the same material a hundred times benefits from Timed Scroll's predictability. Some people use both in the same week, depending on the project.

What happens after you hit record

Neither scroll mode cares what you do next. They're both free features. Your video records regardless of your plan: you get the raw file, ready to edit in whatever software you prefer. If you're on Creator plan or higher, you can add filters, adjust exposure, maybe throw on some background music. If you're Pro, you unlock captions with a pacing coach (which shows you where you sped up or dragged) and per-take recording, so you can nail multiple takes without stopping and starting the entire process.

But the scroll is just the foundation. It's the part that lets you stand in front of a camera and sound like yourself instead of someone reading a script. Everything else is bonus.