Sayella vs Speech Assistant AAC

Sayella is an AAC communication app for nonverbal and minimally verbal children and adults. It turns pictures and words into spoken messages, with speech available offline on iPhone and iPad. Its customizable boards use a research-based core vocabulary, fixed button positions, and selectable board sizes. The app supports touch, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. Boards can be imported and exported in Open Board Format, including.obf and.obz files. Users can generate symbols from words or photos; free accounts include two generations, while paid plans allow unlimited generations. Sayella says AI requests go through Vercel AI Gateway to Google's Imagen and Gemini image models. It states that synced board data is encrypted, analytics do not receive AAC content, and personal data is not sold. Free costs nothing, billed forever, for one child and one device. Monthly costs £7.99 a month, Yearly costs £59 a year, and Lifetime costs £189, paid once. The download page lists Android and browser access as coming soon.

Speech Assistant AAC is a text-to-speech communication app for people with speech impairments, including people with aphasia, MND/ALS or autism. It can speak typed text or saved phrases, display a message in large full-screen type, and flip text for someone opposite the user. Phrases can be organized into categories and subcategories, with buttons that include photos or symbols from a set of 3,400 Mulberry symbols. The Android basic version is free; its full-version upgrade costs $9.99 as a one-time purchase, with no subscription. Listed upgrade features include unlimited categories, up to 250 phrases per category, backups and restore, colors, symbols, history, multiple conversations, voice recordings and user profiles. On iOS, voice options include iOS voices, Apple Personal Voice, recorded speech and ElevenLabs voices. The iOS app supports backups through iCloud, Mail or AirDrop. The app is available on Android, iOS and macOS; the iOS version also supports iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Macs with Apple silicon. The Android version cannot be used during phone calls.