Pictalk Buddy integrates AAC
Pictalk AAC has existed for five years. Nearly 10,000 people use it every month worldwide to communicate, express themselves, and be heard.
Five years is a long time in the app world. Phones have become more powerful, tablets more accessible, and AAC research has advanced significantly. What was difficult to implement in 2020 is now possible. What was acceptable as a user experience then no longer is.
Communication and autonomy are the two pillars of Pictalk’s mission. They cannot be separated: you cannot be truly autonomous without being able to express yourself, and speech only makes sense if it is part of a structured and clear life. We have known this from the start. Yet, our two applications lived separately.
It was time to change that, and to give our users the best that AAC can offer today.
In testing phase
To activate the beta, go to Settings > Communication > Enable.
This version is in beta phase. It may contain bugs, and some features are still being implemented.
Important note: content is not yet synchronized on our servers. Remember to manually export your vocabulary to avoid losing your work.
For existing Pictalk AAC users, a button allows you to download your content directly from the app, to import it into the new module.
Your feedback is our compass. Write to us at alex@pictalk.org.
What actually changes
Ready-to-use vocabularies
You will no longer have to build everything from scratch. Extensive and progressive default vocabularies are integrated, adaptable to every profile and age. Moreover, they are built around the most frequent everyday words, those that alone represent the majority of what we express in a day. A real time saver for families and professionals alike, allowing focus on learning rather than setup.
The vocabularies come from the Open AAC database.
Redesigned ergonomics
Reorganizing pictograms is now done via drag-and-drop. Grid mode facilitates muscle memory, essential for regular users. The aided language boards (ALB) are now printable directly from the app. Organizing your vocabulary has never been easier.
A robust application
Sentence construction becomes smoother and more natural.
Labels automatically adapt to the subject and tense of the sentence. The app learns from your corrections and your vocabulary to become increasingly personalized. Multiple levels of autocorrection and expansion are available, with real-time next word suggestion, similar to a keyboard. The goal: to access complete and complex language more easily.
History of your sentences
Building a sentence takes time. Rebuilding it every time is energy no one should have to spend. The history allows you to instantly retrieve previously spoken sentences and mark them as favorites for recurring situations: at the doctor’s, at the table, at school.
Unprecedented voice quality
Voice is not a detail. It is what the listener hears first. A robotic or age-inappropriate voice creates distance where communication should create connection.
Thanks to ElevenLabs, the voices available in Pictalk reach an unprecedented level of naturalness. And because equipping a little girl with a grandfather's voice, or a teenager with a voice from beyond the grave, is unacceptable, we are working to offer a choice of voices adapted to each profile: age, gender, accent.
Coming soon...
We are working on several features that will profoundly transform the AAC experience in Pictalk Buddy.
AI will be able to automatically generate context-adapted pictograms for the person, drawing from their schedule and life journal. No need to anticipate everything: the relevant vocabulary will be there at the right moment.
Autocorrection and suggestions will rely on the same context to become sharper and more personalized.
A progress tracking feature will allow visualization of vocabulary usage evolution, tasks accomplished, sentence complexity. Valuable data for families and professionals providing daily support.
To facilitate the creation of aided language boards, a design aid for ALBs will be integrated directly into the app.
Finally, a feature will progressively suggest which words to reveal or hide in the grid, based on mastered vocabulary. The goal: preserve muscle memory efficiency while expanding language at the right pace, without overload.
Funding question
For families, access remains pay-what-you-want. Everyone can access speech, even for free.
Synchronizing the vocabulary of a person supported across multiple devices, between multiple educators, while allowing personalization: this is one of the most time-consuming daily challenges in facilities. Pictalk Buddy finally enables maintaining a common and evolving base, while allowing individual adjustments.
Content management is done remotely from an administrator account, without having to intervene on each device. And, because communication and autonomy are inseparable, the supported persons benefit from the entire Pictalk suite in one tool.
These features are included in Pictalk Pro membership, which funds the development and sustainability of the association.
Pictalk AAC in all this?
Both applications will continue to live side by side. Pictalk AAC version 1 remains available until the end of 2026, to allow a smooth transition.
After that, the old version will be gradually turned off, and we will support users in migrating to the new version. For those who need a tool dedicated exclusively to communication, Pictalk AAC will remain available alongside Buddy.
Because Pablo deserves that. And all those who, like him, deserve to be heard too.