IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – “This actually has a lot of implications for the global stuttering community,” said Naomi Rodgers, director of the University of Iowa Stuttering Lab.

As someone who stutters herself, Rodgers said Samsung’s Impulse app and related advertising help spread harmful messages that stuttering needs to be corrected.

“This app really places the responsibility on people who stutter to correct their speech to make it easier for listeners to listen,” Rodgers said. “And that’s a very outdated perspective.”

The app uses AI to give users rhythmic pulses on their Galaxy Watch to follow as they speak, like a metronome.

Rodgers said speaking to a metronome can make it difficult to concentrate on the conversation and can seem robotic.

Julia Kerrigan is a founding member of the nonprofit SPACE, which advocates for people who stutter.

She works with children and adults who stutter and says the message she teaches them is the opposite of Samsung’s.

“This app and the advertising around it in particular, which has reached a large global audience, pushes the narrative that it is not acceptable to stutter,” Kerrigan said. “There’s only so much we can do to counter that in the therapy room.”

TV9 spoke with a Samsung Electronics America representative who said the company is “committed to empowering people of all abilities and makes a sincere effort to listen and understand our customers.”

The app is currently only available in Spain. The Spanish Speech Association and the Portuguese Speech Therapy Society support the application.

The spokesperson said he was not aware of any plans to bring the app to the United States at this time.

Rodgers and Kerrigan are calling on Samsung to market the app, clarifying that the app is not a cure for stuttering.

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