NEW IN RIFF

Think you can win
the argument?

Pick a subject. Pick your side. Argue it out with someone who actually knows the material and will not simply agree with you.

Then a separate judge reads every word and tells you, honestly, who made the better case.

5
specialists
15
exchanges
Any
language
1
impartial judge
Five specialists, waiting
Five specialists, waiting
A real argument, not a chat
A real argument, not a chat
Every debate, judged and kept
Every debate, judged and kept

How a debate works

Four steps, and none of them involve anyone being polite about a bad argument.

01
Choose your opponent
Five specialists, each with a real temperament. Or Vera, who will take on anything.
02
Set the topic
Bring your own, or let them suggest five. Nothing is off limits for being uncomfortable.
03
Pick your side
Agree or disagree. They take the other. Speak your argument or type it.
04
Get judged
A separate judge reads the lot and scores both sides. It will tell you when you won.

Who you are up against

Each one argues their side sincerely — and each one can be argued out of a point. A debater who cannot lose is not debating.

MEET ARBITER

The judge never took part

Arbiter reads the whole debate from the outside and scores both sides on five things. It is not judging who is right — it is judging who argued better, which is a different question and often a different answer.

It quotes your strongest moment back at you, names the point that decided it, and tells you one concrete thing to do better next time.

Engagement
Did you answer their strongest point, or the easiest one?
Concession
Did you give ground where you should have?
Progression
Did the argument move, or did you restate?
Evidence
Were your claims supported? Did you admit real uncertainty?
Conduct
Did you argue about ideas rather than about the person?
🎤
Say it out loud
Speak your argument instead of typing it. Useful if you are practising for something real — an interview, a viva, a difficult conversation. They always reply in writing, so you get thinking time.
🌍
In your own language
Argue in Urdu, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin — whatever you think in. They will argue back in the same language, and tell you honestly if they cannot do it justice.
⚖️
Nothing is off limits for being uncomfortable
Religion, politics, the Middle East, immigration. Real disagreements are uncomfortable. What ends a debate is how it is argued, not what it is about.

What it costs

Debate is not part of a subscription. Everyone gets 50 free debate messages to try it — separate from your monthly companion messages, so trying it costs you nothing you were already paying for.

After that, debate messages come out of your credit balance at 2 credits each.
A debate costs more than a chat message because the debater carries the whole argument with it every turn, and the judge reads all of it at the end. Two credits is what that actually costs to run.

Credits are bought in packs and never expire. A typical debate runs eight to twelve exchanges before it reaches its natural end.

Go on then. Convince someone.

Riff launches soon on iOS and Android. Debate comes with it.

Get started