TypeOut

TypeOut is a typing-based AAC app for iPhone, for nonspeaking teens and adults who can read and write. In app store reviews, AAC users often ask for the freedom to choose their own colors and fonts. TypeOut puts those choices up front. There are 12 interface styles: six with a handwriting font and a little animal that changes pose as you type, speak and listen — including a crayon cat, a Shiba Inu, and hamsters — and six simpler styles, including a high-contrast option. Each works in light or dark. Set your own photos as backgrounds, one for your side and one for the side the other person sees, and replace the corner animal with a cutout from one of your own photos. Sort your phrases into categories, give buttons their own colors, and adjust text size and line spacing as needed. You choose the voice, too: eight AI voices, four female and four male. Tap one to hear it, and adjust the speaking rate. You can also create your own custom voice. Using it is simple: type a sentence and your phone says it out loud. When the other person answers, their words appear in large text, one sentence per block. One tap flips the text so the person across from you can read it without you handing your phone over. TypeOut is built around typing, so people who mainly communicate with picture symbols will be better served by a symbol-based AAC app. Free to download. The built-in iPhone voice is free forever, has no usage limits and works offline; cloud-based AI voices require a subscription. Available in English, Japanese and Chinese.