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

As a person who stutters himself, Rodgers said Samsung’s Impulse app and advertising for it contributes to harmful messages that stuttering needs to be fixed.

“This practice really puts the onus 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 “And that’s a very outdated perspective.”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 artificial intelligence to give users rhythmic alerts that they can follow while speaking, similar to a metronome on their Galaxy watch.

Talking to a metronome can make it difficult to concentrate on speaking and make you sound robotic, Rodgers said.

Julia Kerrigan is a founding member of SPACE, a stuttering advocacy nonprofit.

He works with children and adults who stutter, and says the message he teaches them is the exact opposite of Samsung’s.

“This app, and especially the advert that has a huge global audience, pushes the narrative that stuttering is not okay,” Kerrigan said. “There’s only so much work we can do in the therapy room to counteract this.”

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 Association support the practice.

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

Rodgers and Kerrigan call on Samsung to market the app with a disclaimer that the app is not a cure for stuttering.

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