Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) apps have revolutionized communication for individuals with speech and language disabilities, enabling them to express themselves in ways previously impossible. With the increasing popularity of mobile devices, AAC apps have become more accessible and convenient for users. This article will highlight some of the best AAC apps available for Android and iOS platforms, and compare their features and functionality.
We have compiled a list of 5 Best Aac Apps For Android & iOS for your consideration, which have undergone rigorous testing and evaluation by our team of experts.
Table of Contents
5 Best Aac Apps For Android & iOS
1. LetMeTalk
LetMeTalk is a free Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app that allows users to communicate in all areas of life. The app is donation-financed and provides a voice to everyone. With LetMeTalk, images can be lined up in a meaningful way to form sentences.
Users can access more than 9,000 easy-to-understand images from ARASAAC, and can also add existing images from their device or take new photos with the built-in camera. LetMeTalk does not require an internet connection or mobile contract and can be used in hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and other situations.
The app is suitable for individuals with autism symptoms and Asperger syndrome, speech apraxia, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, and other conditions. It includes features such as voice support for images and sentences, unlimited creation of new categories and adding new images, and the ability to pre-configure for kids with autism spectrum disorder.
Users can load and save their current profile (vocabulary) and keep several profiles on their devices and switch fast between them. They can also share their profile easily with other devices and load new profiles from the LetMeTalk forum directly within the app. LetMeTalk supports 16 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese, and Arabic.
The app is used by Speech Language Pathologists (SLP) and is available for download now. For those experiencing problems installing the app, a solution can be found at bit.ly/1p6zGW8. LetMeTalk also offers tutorials at letmetalk.info/support.
2. CommBoards
Commboards is an app that utilizes an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) system of communication boards to assist people of all ages with limited verbal abilities to express themselves and communicate with others. The user taps on a series of pictures or symbols to create a sentence, which is then read aloud. This can encourage oral speech and help the user express thoughts and feelings. Commboards is particularly useful for people with conditions like Autism, Aspergers, and other verbal self-expression related conditions.
Commboards does not require an internet connection or mobile contract for continuous use, making it a convenient option for use in various situations, such as schools, hospitals, and even during flights. Commboards comes with a rich collection of easy-to-understand imagery, and also allows users to add existing images or take new photos with their device’s camera.
The app includes predefined communication boards for common categories like Feel, Play, Eat, Drink, and Saying Hello to family members. Additionally, users can create unlimited new categories with custom images and sounds. Commboards features high-quality imagery, natural pronunciation of sounds, and easy-to-understand images. Users can associate photos to cells using the camera or images from their gallery and record sounds using the microphone and associate them with any cell. The app is pre-configured for kids with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Commboards is suitable for people with conditions like Autism, Aspergers, Aphasia, Speech Apraxia, Articulation/Phonological Disorder, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Motor Neuron Disease (MND), and Cerebral Palsy. The app also provides full support for multiple languages, including English, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean. Commboards is used by Speech Language Pathologists (SLP).
3. Leeloo AAC
Leeloo is an application designed to aid non-verbal children in communicating with their parents, teachers, and friends. The app’s development is based on the principles of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), which are known to be effective techniques for autism treatment and therapy in communication.
Leeloo includes a card for every word that a child might need to use in their daily life. Each card is paired with a definitive vector image representing the word or phrase that the child is attempting to communicate.
In addition to the visual card system, Leeloo also has voice capability. When a card is pressed, a text-to-speech robot will reveal options of phrases for the child to choose from. The selected phrase will then be read aloud, with the user having the option to choose from over ten different voices available in the AAC Speech app Leeloo.
Leeloo is primarily designed for children suffering from mental, learning, or behavioral disorders, with Autism being the most common. The app is also suitable for individuals with Asperger’s syndrome, Angelman syndrome, Down syndrome, Aphasia, Speech apraxia, ALS, MDN, and Cerebral palsy.
While Leeloo has pre-configured and tested cards for preschool and school-aged children, it can be customized for adults or individuals of later ages who are suffering from similar disorders or are in the spectrum mentioned. The developers welcome feedback and encourage users to take the time to provide their comments and reviews of the app.
4. Spoken – Tap to Talk AAC
Spoken is a natural language assistant designed to aid individuals with speech and language disorders such as aphasia and autism. The app offers an innovative approach to augmentative and alternative communication by predicting the words that the user wants to say next. It is available for use on tablets and phones.
The app allows users to speak in full sentences, rather than being limited to simple phrases and icons. As the user selects each word, Spoken brings up the words that they are likely to want to use next. This enables the user to quickly build meaningful sentences, simply by tapping on the words.
Spoken is designed to learn the user’s style of speech, meaning that the more it is used, the better it becomes at predicting what the user wants to say. This feature, combined with intelligent predictive language, enables users to communicate more quickly and fully than they may have been able to previously.
The app is easy to use, with no need for new devices or confusing menus. Spoken understands and predicts what the user wants to say next, enabling them to simply tap and have their words spoken automatically. This makes the app an efficient and convenient rehabilitation tool for individuals with speech and language disorders such as ALS, Parkinson’s, and stroke.
Spoken offers additional functionality through a subscription service, with subscriptions available for both monthly and yearly use. The app offers next-generation text-to-speech and state-of-the-art machine learning predictions, making it a valuable tool for families, caregivers, and speech therapists seeking to aid individuals who have difficulty communicating.
5. SymboTalk
SymboTalk is a free app that enables users to communicate by clicking on symbols in predefined communication boards. The app is designed as an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system for those who are unable to speak for themselves due to physical or mental conditions such as Autism, Asperger’s, Down Syndrome, ALS, apraxia, stroke, etc. SymboTalk offers key features such as the ability to create custom symbols, build flexible communication boards, and edit profiles for users. Users can click on symbols to read them aloud, download boards for hard-copy use, and access the app on any device or platform.
SymboTalk offers 14 predefined Boards based on ARASAAC Symbols, translated to 23 languages. Users can add images to symbols from their camera or files and search for images from an online library with over 60,000 images, including ARASAAC, Mulberry, and Sclera Symbols. The app supports all languages in the Android text-to-speech feature for speaking, and users can lock the screen for users who cannot create their own boards. SymboTalk also offers full offline support, the ability to group symbols into a sentence, and search for boards and symbols.
The app’s additional features include the ability to create sub boards and choose colors for symbols. SymboTalk also supports cloud services for sharing, syncing, and backing up data, but this is a paid feature. Users can access the app in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Basque, Galician, and Hebrew.
SymboTalk supports a wide range of languages for speaking, including Bangla, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Nepali, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Users can download appropriate applications to access more languages.