A personal voice from eight seconds of audio
900+ natural voices across ages and accents, plus your own. Record about eight seconds and Dawn builds a personal voice on the device in about half a minute.
It can be the user's own voice, kept while speech is still there, or a family member's. The recording never leaves the app. No upload, no account.
Voice Studio shapes any voice by pitch and age, or takes a recording and finds the voices nearest to it. One take is enough, even a shaky one.
Message banking is built in too: record whole phrases and play them back exactly as said.
Eight seconds in → their voice out. All on the device.
No lag between the tap and the voice
Dawn renders the message while it's being built and keeps the board's words ready for the active voice. Tap Speak and it plays at once.
Each board word is rendered inside a natural phrase and cut at its last sound, so a single tap sounds like speech, not a clipped recording.
Write it, hear it
A whiteboard for when drawing beats finding the word. Write on it and one tap reads the handwriting aloud in the chosen voice.
Partners can use it too. Handwriting recognition runs on the device.
Fix a tense with one tap
Tap a word and its family appears beside the board: am, are, is, was, were, the contractions and related verbs. Changing "is" to "was" is one touch.
A word keeps its cell until someone moves it. New words appear in empty cells as the level goes up, so practiced motor patterns keep working.
Everything you'd expect from a full AAC app
3,400+ symbols
The complete Mulberry set, plus personal photos as symbols. Search answers "where is that word?"
Switch access & scanning
Row, column, block or one-at-a-time scanning with one or two external switches, and auditory scanning.
Full customization
Change any button's word, symbol and color. Add words and folders. A quick math gate keeps editing away from busy hands.
Typing with prediction
A large keyboard with word prediction, spoken in the same instant voice.
The core stays on screen
From 6×8 up, the top rows (I, you, want, do, go, can, not, yes, no, what, where) stay put when a folder opens. Each column has one grammatical job.
One grid, sized for the hand
A 6×8 board by default, with 8×10 and 10×12 above it and 3×4, 4×6 and 5×7 for bigger buttons. Moving up from 6×8 keeps every home word in its cell. Words appear in place as a beginner is ready.
Open formats & backups
Import and export Open Board Format boards. One-tap backups that restore everything, kept in your own files.
Touch accommodations
Hold-to-activate timing, ignoring repeated taps, VoiceOver and Dynamic Type.
iPhone and iPad
One subscription, both devices, the same board.
Whiteboard
Six pens and an eraser, and it can speak what's written.
How Dawn compares
Against what leading symbol-based AAC apps typically offer.
| Dawn | Typical premium AAC | |
|---|---|---|
| Only on Dawn | ||
| Personal voice from an eight-second sample, created on the device | Yes | Not offered, or cloud-based |
| A Voice Studio: 900+ voices to shape or match to a recording | Yes | A short fixed list |
| Modern neural speech that runs offline | Yes | Older voice tech, or online features |
| Handwriting on the whiteboard, spoken aloud | Yes | Not offered |
| No account, no sign-in, nothing collected | Yes | Varies |
| The fundamentals, in both | ||
| Symbol boards with full customization | Yes | Yes |
| Switch scanning and alternative access | Yes | Yes |
| Typing view with prediction | Yes | Yes |
| Grammar support | Yes | Yes |
| Message banking | Yes | Often |
Who Dawn is for
Pages on AAC for specific conditions and situations: what the research says, and which parts of Dawn are relevant.
Children
Every condition and situation · Guides for families · What the research says
Common questions
Is the voice recording safe?
The recording becomes a voice on the device and stays there. Nothing is uploaded. No account, no analytics. Deleting the voice deletes it.
Does it need the internet?
No. Voices, speech and personal voice creation all run on the device.
Does the whiteboard need an Apple Pencil?
No. Finger drawing works everywhere in Dawn.
What devices and languages?
iPhone and iPad on iOS 17 or later, one subscription for both. English at launch.
Who is Dawn for?
Nonspeaking and minimally speaking people of any age: autistic children and adults, people with ALS, aphasia, apraxia, Parkinson's or cerebral palsy, and their families, SLPs and care teams. From first symbols to full sentences and typing.
Reach out
Questions that aren't support, or licensing our on-device technology: [email protected]. We're a small team, and someone who works on the app reads every message.
For support, see the support page.