The short answer: Steady Pace reads your splits aloud as you pass them, announcing your pace and distance so you never have to look at the screen. Paired with the continuous pace tone, it means the two things you check most during a run, how fast you are going right now and how the last segment went, both reach you through sound. Your eyes stay on the road.
Why looking down for splits costs you
A split is a natural checkpoint: you hit a kilometer or a mile and you want to know how it went. On most apps that means raising your wrist or pulling out your phone and reading, which drops your gaze, breaks your rhythm, and pulls your attention off the run for a few seconds each time. Do it every split for an hour and it adds up to a lot of looking away, usually at the moments you are working hardest.
Hearing the split instead removes the interruption. The announcement comes to you, you take it in without slowing or looking, and you carry on.
Spoken splits and a live tone, together
The two audio features cover different questions. The pace tone tells you continuously, by pitch, whether you are on pace at that moment. The spoken split tells you at each checkpoint, in words, how the last segment went. Together they give you the full picture of your run without a single glance.
| Steady Pace | A screen-first app | |
|---|---|---|
| How you learn a split | Announced aloud | Read off a screen |
| Eyes stay on the run | Yes | No, you glance down |
| Live pace between splits | A continuous tone | A number to check |
| Works without looking at all | Yes | No |
Steady Pace speaks each split aloud as you reach it, so you get the checkpoint without looking down or breaking your stride.
Blog
What is pace by ear?
The live tone that runs between your splits.
Blog
Run by ear
Why spoken splits matter most without sight.
Guide
How to run a steady pace
Using splits to hold an even effort.
Does Steady Pace announce splits out loud?
Yes. Each split is read aloud as you reach it, giving your pace and distance so you never have to look at the screen to know how the run is going.
Can I get my pace and my splits both without looking?
Yes. The pace tone tells you your current pace continuously by pitch, and spoken splits announce each checkpoint in words. Between them you follow the whole run by sound.
Do spoken splits work with music or a podcast?
The announcements are designed to come through over your audio the way navigation prompts do, so you can listen to something and still hear each split as you pass it.
Do I need a connection for spoken splits?
No. Like the rest of the app, spoken splits work fully offline, since the app makes no network connections at all.