Evangel ChatWhere we are headed, and where we have been
What’s new
Evangel Chat is in beta, and it is not finished. It changes often. Here is what we are working toward, and then everything that has changed so far, in the words we would use if you asked us across the table.
Where we are headed
These are directions, not promises. There are no dates, because the honest answer to “when?” is “when it is good enough.” The order is not a ranking.
Being built and tested
Feedback on how you sound
Alongside what you said, the coach would notice how it came across: pace, steadiness, warmth. It is built and we are testing it privately. It offers observations, not a score, and if it comes to the app you would be asked first.
Even more natural voices
We are trying newer voice technology that can be told how each person should sound, so each one comes across more like themselves in age, mood and way of speaking.
On our list
The right tool for each job
Listening, playing a person and coaching are different jobs. We are comparing the options for each, and choosing the best one for the job rather than one for everything.
Conversations that respond to you
A person who softens when you are nervous, or presses when you are ready, based on how you come across as well as what you say.
Practice with a group
A class or a church group working through a course together, each person still in their own private conversation, with a shared sense of how the group is doing.
More people, more courses
New people to practice with, from more backgrounds and ways of seeing the world, and new courses beyond the five levels.
What has changed
Newest first.
Conversations now have a time limit
- Every conversation now has a natural length: about 10 minutes with people who are easier to talk to, about 16 with others, and up to 24 with the most challenging. The exact length shifts a little each time, and no conversation ever runs past 35 minutes.
- There is no clock on the screen. As time runs short, the person you are talking with begins to wrap up the way anyone would.
- When the conversation ends, you go straight to your coaching report. If time ran out before you said anything, nothing is scored.
- Premium voices are on. The people you practice with speak in studio-quality voices matched to who they are, for as long as your premium time lasts.
- The Terms of Service and Privacy Policy have a new edition. You will be asked to read and accept it once.
- This page now shows where we are headed as well as where we have been.
- A bell in the header, called Updates, now brings you messages from us when there is something worth knowing. This page is the first one.
Free Practice, badges and your premium voice time
- Free Practice, on the Curriculum page, lets you pick anyone on the roster and simply talk, with no lesson attached.
- Coaching is on by default in Free Practice. Turn it off for a conversation with no report, no scores and no progress, and it still appears in your history.
- Your premium voice time now shows at the top of the app and during a conversation, with a separate meter for the shared supply.
- The dashboard shows your badges, when you earned them, what each one asks for, and how far you are from the next conversation milestone.
- Four short films on the home page show how a first conversation, a lesson, Free Practice and your progress work.
A guided welcome and a better way to install
- New accounts begin with a short guided welcome: seven screens on how practice works, setting up a passkey, and adding Evangel Chat to your home screen. It remembers where you are, even if you switch devices.
- On Chrome and Android, the welcome has an Install button.
- You can sign in with a 6-digit code from your email instead of the link, which helps when the link opens in the wrong app.
- The app icon, the tab icon and the installed name now match the Evangel Chat logo.
- If a conversation did not work, for example the other person never answered or you could not hear them, you can remove it from your history and tell us what went wrong. Nothing from it counts toward your progress.
- Fixed: the standard voice was silent in some conversations.
Sign in without a password
- You can now sign in with a link sent to your email, a passkey, or Google. There is no password to remember or lose.
- The home page has the Evangel Chat logo and a cleaner layout.
- Premium voice time is described in plain language, so it is clear what you have and what happens when it runs out.
Privacy, and control over what is kept
- The Terms of Service and Privacy Policy are published, and you confirm your age and accept them before you begin.
- You can delete your account from inside the app, along with every conversation attached to it.
- Your conversation history now lives on your own device. Once your device has a conversation, we delete its text from our servers.
- You can choose to share conversations to help improve the service. It is off until you turn it on.
- Accounts that stay unused for a long time are deleted, as the Privacy Policy describes.
- If the service has a problem partway through a conversation, nothing is saved and you can try again. Before, an apology could be saved and scored as if the other person had said it.
- Each account has a daily limit on conversations and messages, which protects the service for everyone.
- The app is now named Evangel Chat.
Where Evangel Chat is available
- Evangel Chat is not offered in the European Union or the European Economic Area. Visitors there see a plain notice instead of the app.
Premium voice, and what happens when it runs out
- You can see how much premium voice time you have. When it runs out, the conversation carries on with a standard voice. It is the same people, the same coaching and the same scoring.
- The shared supply of premium voice fills a little each day instead of once a month, so voice quality does not depend on the date.
- A long conversation now counts for what it actually used.
Lessons that finish when you practice
- Reading a lesson is one star out of three. A lesson with a practice conversation is finished when you have practiced it and received your coaching.
- The curriculum board shows your stars and picks up where you left off.
- The lesson list loads far faster.
- Each course names its own practice partner.
A new look, and The Simple Gospel
- The whole app has a new design built around three rooms: the Classroom for learning, the Arena for a live conversation, and the Review for your coaching report.
- A new Getting Started page explains what practice involves before you begin.
- The Simple Gospel is a new twelve-lesson course on sharing the gospel from start to finish, with a practice conversation in every lesson.
- Your standing is earned in conversations. A course no longer decides your level.
Five levels of lessons and more than twenty people to practice with
- The curriculum has five levels, from your first conversations to the long game of caring for people rather than winning arguments.
- There are more than twenty people to practice with, each with a different background, worldview and way of pushing back.
- Each person speaks in their own voice, chosen to suit who they are.
- Your coach now knows which lesson you are practicing.
Install it on your phone
- Evangel Chat can be installed on a phone or computer and opens like an app.
- On phones, navigation moves to a bar along the bottom of the screen.
- If you lose your connection, you see a clear offline page.
- The screen stays awake during a conversation, so your phone does not lock halfway through a sentence.
- A light and dark theme, with a toggle.
The first working version
- Practice a conversation with someone who has their own views, by voice or by text, with a live transcript beside you.
- A coaching report after each conversation. Scores come only from what was actually said.
- Experience points, streaks, badges and a history of your conversations.