Press kit

Homespoken

The speech-first app for Amharic and Tigrinya — built by the diaspora, for the diaspora.

The story

Homespoken is the first speech-first app for Amharic and Tigrinya — two languages spoken by more than 60 million people that no major learning platform teaches. It was built by a second-generation Eritrean developer for the diaspora: young people who grew up hearing these languages at home but answering in English.

Because no usable speech technology existed for these languages, Homespoken built its own — custom text-to-speech and speech recognition trained with a network of native speakers. The heart of the app is Talk: live spoken conversations with a tutor that listens, replies out loud, and gently helps — from ordering coffee to greeting your grandmother. Every phrase is verified by native speakers.

The app follows the community calendar — Ethiopian New Year, Genna, Timket, Eritrean Independence Day — and a Word of the Day widget keeps a phrase from home on the Home Screen. Homespoken exists so a generation does not lose the language its families speak.

Fast facts

App Store name: Homespoken: Amharic & Tigrinya

What it is: speech-first language learning — guided speaking lessons, pronunciation feedback, and live voice conversation with an AI tutor

Platform: iOS (iPhone) · Price: free to start · Taught in English

Languages: Amharic and Tigrinya, with real speaker audio throughout

Website: homespoken.app · Press contact: mikyamine10@gmail.com