Should you keep Grid, or would another app be enough? For eye gaze or controlling a computer, Grid remains the reference. For communicating and organising everyday life, by touch or with a switch, Buddy, which we develop at Pictalk, is an alternative worth considering.
Who is Grid for, and how much does it cost?
Grid, from the British company Smartbox, is designed for complex physical access: eye gaze, switches, joystick, head mouse, voice activation. It also controls the computer and the environment (television, lights, email). There are two versions:
- Grid for iPad, on iPad: £9.99/month or £299.99 as a one-off purchase, with a 30-day free trial.
- Grid 3, on Windows, often installed on a dedicated device with an eye-tracking camera: about £550 excl. VAT for the licence from a UK reseller, with a 60-day free trial.
Buddy and Grid: the table
Prices checked on the UK App Store in October 2026: check them on the day you buy.
| Criterion | Buddy (Pictalk) | Grid for iPad / Grid 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Pay what you want, no locked features | £9.99/month or £299.99 (iPad); Grid 3 about £550 excl. VAT |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac, Android watch | iPad, Windows |
| Access | Touch, switch | Touch, switches, eye gaze, joystick, head, voice |
| Languages | 11 | More than 30 |
| Symbols | ARASAAC, Mulberry, Tawasol, Sclera, ParlerPictos, OpenMoji, Makaton, personal photos | SymbolStix, PCS, Widgit |
| Vocabularies included | Essential 24, Springboard 48, Horizon 80, Quick Core, Vocal Flair, CommuniKate, Sequoia | Super Core, Voco Chat, Alpha Core, Text Talker, Aphasia Duo, Fast Talker, PODD |
| Vocabularies designed for phones | Yes | No |
| Grammar | Yes | Yes |
| Offline | Yes | Yes |
| Format | Open (OBZ) | Proprietary |
| Beyond AAC | Visual schedule, guided sequences, notebooks, smartwatch | Computer and environmental control |
| Publisher | French non-profit association | Company |
Notes
- Buddy: on Windows and Mac, Buddy runs in the browser; the Android watch app works with Wear OS.
- Access: Buddy offers simple switch scanning (row, then cell), with a switch, the Space or Enter key, or a gamepad.
- Languages: for Grid, ‘more than 30’ according to Smartbox.
- Buddy’s vocabularies: 17 in English, with categorical organisation, motor planning and a pragmatic approach.
- Offline: for Grid, verified for Grid 3; Buddy downloads everything it needs at start-up.
What Buddy brings
Where Grid extends AAC towards the computer, Buddy, an independence companion, extends it towards everyday life:
- Everything is linked: AAC boards, visual schedule, guided sequences, notebooks and smartwatch share the same words and symbols. The person understands their day, follows steps and tells their news, in their own words.
- Smart context learns about family and friends, places and routines from the schedule and the notebooks, to better understand what is said, correct sentences and arrange symbols.
- The communication report tracks the number and length of messages, new words and communicative functions. It can be printed for the speech and language therapist; with Buddy Pro, the therapist or the setting can access it directly.
- All the person’s devices: phone, tablet, computer and smartwatch synced, including older devices, by touch or with a switch.
- Your data stays yours: Buddy imports and exports the open OBZ format.
When should you keep Grid?
- Physical access is difficult: the person uses eye gaze, switches with advanced scanning modes, a joystick or head control. Grid covers them all, ideally on a dedicated device, which can be funded; Buddy has no eye gaze. See Access: positioning, switches, eye gaze.
- The condition is progressive, as in motor neurone disease (MND): the same software follows the changes in access (touch, then switch, then eye gaze), without relearning everything.
- The person wants to control their computer or environment: Grid 3 is designed for that.
- The person is already comfortable with Grid: their automatic movements are valuable, don’t change without a strong reason.
How do you move from Grid to Buddy?
Grid’s format is proprietary: grids can’t be imported directly. While Grid still works, take screenshots of the most used pages and list the personal words (names, places, foods). Choose a similar grid size, keep Grid available for a few weeks and model a lot on Buddy. The steps are set out in our comparison, in the section ‘Changing apps without losing progress’.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grid available on Android or on phones?
No: Grid works on iPad and Windows; Grid Player, the old iPhone app, is no longer updated. Buddy works on iPhone as well as on Android.
Can you keep Grid and use Buddy as well?
Yes: a common compromise is to keep Grid for communicating and Buddy for the schedule, sequences and smartwatch. Avoid running two communication boards side by side, as the words would not be in the same places.
Pictalk Buddy brings together AAC boards, a visual schedule, guided sequences and notebooks, with the same symbols, on Android, iOS, the web and the watch. A pay-what-you-want app, developed by a non-profit association. Discover Buddy
Sources
- Smartbox, official Grid website, accessed in September and October 2026, and the UK App Store, accessed in October 2026.