Voice.

Speak to Kata#

1. Tap the microphone in the chat.
2. Say it like you would to a friend: "big glass of water and 20 minutes on the bike".
3. Kata transcribes and sends automatically: the message lands like a typed one, and the coach answers with lock-in cards as usual.

People use it while cooking, walking, driving or with wet hands: the transcription handles casual, real-world speech. It happens on your device, so your raw audio never leaves it: see Your data. For a full hands-free conversation, where Kata speaks back and you go turn by turn, see Talk to Kata.

Have replies read aloud#

Any coach reply can be read to you: tap the speaker icon on a message. Handy mid-workout or when your eyes are busy. Every plan can read replies aloud in a clear on-device voice, for free. Kata Plus and Kata Unlimited switch that to a Kata voice, described next.

Kata voices#

On Kata Plus and Kata Unlimited, Kata reads replies in a Kata voice: more natural, and native to the language of the reply. Rather than one voice stretched across every language, Kata offers voices made for each: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and English. The delivery follows your coach tone setting, so the same voice coaches you the way you asked to be coached.

Pick who reads to you in Settings, General, under Coach voice: one list of named voices, grouped by language, each speaking its own. Choose a voice in another language and Kata offers to switch the whole app to it. Numbers stay listenable too: the voice reads units as words, so 80 kg arrives as eighty kilograms. If a Kata voice is ever unavailable, the coach reads in the device voice instead, so read-aloud never fails.

Mégane, Kata's founder voice#

For English, the default Kata voice is Mégane, the founder of Kata, in her own real voice. It is offered first and marked as the founder voice. Because the voice engine is multilingual, Mégane can also read the founder moments below in your language, with a light accent outside English. You are always free to pick another voice instead.

Voice notes from Mégane#

Now and then Mégane checks in with a short, personal voice note: recognition when you hit a real milestone, like passing thirty days off a habit or reaching a weight goal, and a nudge when you have been away for a while. It is grounded in what actually happened, never a generic "great job".

• Where it appears: the Kata coach introduces it in the chat, then it plays as a real voice note you can replay any time.
• How often: rarely, by design. A founder note is special because it is not frequent, and a real win is always chosen over a nag.
• Your call: it is on by default and you can turn it off in Settings, Notifications, under Founder voice notes, like any other category. Quiet hours are respected, so a note never lands at 3am.
• From the team: now and then a voice note from Kata's team can arrive in your notification inbox, with a play button and sometimes a link to what it talks about.

Every voice message plays in a proper player: the real shape of the audio drawn as a wave you can tap or drag to any point, pause and pick up where you left off, replay any time. The founder notes in the chat and the team notes in your inbox share the same one.

The Weekly Kata and Sensei letters, read aloud#

The Weekly Kata review and the Sensei letters carry a play button so you can hear them read aloud in Mégane's voice, rather than only reading them. The reading stays faithful to what is on screen. On Kata Free, or when the Kata voice is unavailable, the same text reads in the device voice.

Talk to Kata#

Talk to Kata is the hands-free conversation: you speak, and Kata replies out loud in Mégane's voice, back and forth, like talking to a person. It has its own page: Talk to Kata.

What voice and Talk cost by plan#

A voice interaction is one reply spoken by a Kata voice, or one spoken turn in Talk. Typing, the free device voice, and replaying something you already heard never count. Kata voices and Talk come with Kata Plus and Kata Unlimited, and Kata Free has none of them. Every new account starts with 30 days of Plus, so you hear them from day one.

If you reach a monthly amount, Kata voices and Talk rest for the remainder of the month with a note, the free device voice keeps reading replies aloud, and everything resets at the start of the next month. This is a separate allowance from the coach message fair use.