Casual texting English for adult learners.

Your learners can write a very good email of complaint. Then someone texts them "u around later? no worries if not x" and they freeze, because no coursebook covered the x.

Itclickt is a dating-style app where every profile is an AI companion, and they chat in English the way people text it: short, often lower case, several bubbles instead of one tidy paragraph, abbreviations and slang dropped in without explanation. There are companions in London, Manchester, Dublin, Toronto, New York and Chicago, and chatting with them shows a learner how a chat moves when nobody is being careful.

Five lines, and there's a lesson in them. What "grand" means in Dublin, for a start, and why she asks "u?" instead of "And how was your weekend?"

The simplest way to use it is as homework. A learner chats during the week, then brings a screenshot to class and you go through it. What did she mean there? Would you say that to your boss? Should the reply have been that long? Companions remember earlier chats, so a learner can pick a conversation back up days later, which is good practice in itself.

Some things to know. It's for adults only: everyone has to be 18 or over to sign up, so it can't be used with younger classes. It isn't a course. There's no marking or exam practice, and a companion's slang is that companion's slang, which isn't the same as a style guide. Nobody here is a teacher, either. Rasheed in London has a 600-day Duolingo streak and still can't order food in Spanish, and we suspect he'd be no help with the present perfect. Companions also get facts about their own city wrong now and then, so a learner shouldn't take their word on a London bus route.

Each learner makes their own account and can start on the free plan, which has 100 messages a month and 5 active chats. We don't have school accounts or group billing. If you run classes and want to talk about it, email hello@itclickt.com and we'll talk.

Try a chat yourself first, then decide whether it belongs in your lessons.