The Sunday morning problem that built Promptr

How we got here

When we started building Promptr at MRVL, we were thinking about YouTubers and podcast hosts. People who need a teleprompter but also need to record video. The mobile phone is the world's most accessible camera now, and yet most people using teleprompter apps were treating them as separate tools. You'd read from a prompter on your phone, then record somewhere else. Or worse, you'd memorise your lines and hope for the best.

But then we heard from preachers. Then lecturers. Then public speakers preparing for conferences. They all had the same friction: standing in front of a camera or a congregation and trying to maintain eye contact without dropping the thread of what you're saying.

The Bristol pastor wasn't alone. Once we started paying attention, we realised this was the real problem. It wasn't about being fancy. It was about being present.

Why notes don't work when the camera is rolling

I watched a recording of a sermon a pastor shared with me. Twenty minutes long. You could see where he'd glance down at his notes. Not dramatically, but enough that it fractured the connection with his audience. He knew it too. 'I hate it,' he told me. 'I'm trying to speak about something that matters, and I'm worried about where my eyes are.'

That's the gap Promptr fills. When you're reading from your phone's screen, the words move at your pace. If you're using Smart Scroll, it follows the natural rhythm of your speech. If you want precise timing, Timed Scroll lets you set the exact pace and trust it. Either way, you're not looking away from the lens. You're not hunting for your next line on a printed page in your hand.

For a preacher, a lecturer, anyone whose words carry weight, that matters. It's the difference between delivering a message and appearing to deliver one.

Recording and polish happen together, not after

One of the decisions we made early on was this: Promptr records video while you're reading. We could have built it as a teleprompter only and let you use your phone's camera app separately. That felt half done.

When you're in Promptr, you tap record and it captures everything. Video, audio, your composure. The moment you stop, you have a take. No syncing separate files. No guessing whether your audio and video are in sync. For Creator subscribers, you can also add manual exposure and colour grading right there. For Pro subscribers, we've added beauty filters, background blur, and the ability to record multiple takes and pick the best one later.

A lecturer told us this saved her about two hours per week. She used to record, check the audio separately, re-record, check again. Now she records five takes in Promptr, picks the clearest one, and moves on. The video already has the look she wants because she set it up once.

The script is just the start

We included script import because everyone already has their material somewhere. It might be a Word document. A PDF. Sometimes just plain text pasted into an email. You bring it into Promptr and it's ready to read. Free users can store three scripts. Creator and Pro subscribers can store as many as they need, and they all sync across your devices via iCloud or Supabase.

For people who are still drafting their message, we added an AI script writing assistant in the Creator tier. I want to be clear about what this is: it's not writing your sermon or your lecture for you. It's a first-draft tool. You give it a topic or a few notes, and it generates something you can edit, reshape, and make your own. One pastor told us he used it to break through writer's block on a Wednesday afternoon. He spent the next hour rewriting what it produced until it sounded like him again.

The features that matter when you're on camera

Voice Scroll is something we built after watching a preacher get frustrated with Timed Scroll. He wanted flexibility. He was explaining something and needed to linger. Timed Scroll moves at a fixed pace. Voice Scroll listens to your cadence and moves the words as you speak, as if the app understands you're pausing for emphasis rather than getting lost. It's a Pro feature, and once you use it, you can't imagine going back.

We also added a pacing coach, which gives you visual feedback on the script. Some parts are marked in red because you're rushing. Some in green because you're pacing well. If you're someone who runs short or over time regularly, this changes the game. You'll know before you record whether you're on target.

And captions. On-device captions that appear while you're recording, generated in real time. Watermark-free export so when you share a take, it's clean. A Brand Kit in Pro so if you're recording multiple messages or lectures, your intro and outro colours stay consistent. These aren't sexy features. But they're the difference between something that looks like a home recording and something that looks intentional.

What it isn't, and why that matters

Promptr records. It doesn't edit. We built it knowing that video editing is its own craft. Some creators use Final Cut. Some use DaVinci Resolve. Some use CapCut. The moment we tried to be an editor too, we'd be half an editor, and people would still need to use a real one. Better to be a brilliant teleprompter that records clean takes than a poor video editor that frustrates people halfway through their workflow.

It's also iPhone and iPad only. We made that choice deliberately. We wanted to make something fast and reliable on mobile, not spread ourselves thin trying to support Windows, Android, web, and desktop all at once. If you need a teleprompter on desktop, there are other tools. We're the one you use when your camera is in your pocket and your script is in your phone.