Dawn AAC press kit

Press kit

Everything needed to write about Dawn accurately: the facts, the story, quotable claims that are actually true, and downloadable assets. For interviews or anything not covered here: [email protected].

Dawn is an AAC app for iPhone and iPad that can speak in its user's own voice. AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) is how people who cannot rely on speech communicate: tap symbols, build a sentence, the device speaks it. Dawn's difference is its voice engine, which runs entirely on the device: about eight seconds of recorded speech becomes a personal neural voice in about ten seconds, with nothing uploaded anywhere. There is no account, no server, and no data collection of any kind.

Fact sheet

NameDawn AAC
PlatformsiPhone and iPad, one app
Price modelYearly subscription with a free trial, through the App Store
Voices970 built-in neural voices, plus personal voices created on the device from about eight seconds of audio
Voice StudioShape any voice by pitch and age, blend two voices, or match a recording to the nearest built-in voices
Symbols3,400+ (the complete Mulberry set, CC-BY-SA) plus personal photos
AccessSwitch access with row and column scanning, hold-to-activate timing, VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, easier-reading text option
Grids4x6, 6x8, 8x10; smaller grids embed exactly into larger ones so motor plans survive growth
Also built inMessage banking, typing with word prediction, a speaking whiteboard, Open Board Format import, one-tap backups
ConnectivityNone required, ever. The engine is on the device; the whole app works in airplane mode
PrivacyNo account, no analytics, no server. App Privacy label: Data Not Collected. Policy

The story

Most AAC voices are generic. For a child, that means sounding like a default; for an adult losing their voice to ALS or surgery, it means losing it entirely. Voice banking services exist, but they typically want long recording sessions and a cloud upload, which is a lot to ask of someone whose speech is already unsteady.

Dawn's engine needs about eight seconds. One take, even shaky or noisy. The voice is built and tuned on the phone itself, measured against the recording rather than guessed, and the audio never leaves the device. The same architecture is why the privacy answer is simple: there is no server to send anything to.

Quotable claims, all verifiable

Eight seconds of audio becomes a personal voice, built on the phone in about ten seconds.
Dawn collects no data. Not minimized, not anonymized: none. The App Privacy label reads "Data Not Collected."
The entire speech engine runs offline. A child can speak in an elevator, a basement classroom, or a plane.

Assets

All images may be reproduced in coverage of Dawn. Please do not alter the screenshots' contents.

Dawn app icon: three dots like a typing indicator on deep navy, the third dot a glowing gold sun
App icon, 1024 px. Three dots, like a message being typed; the third is the sun.Download PNGDownload SVG
Dawn app icon in greyscale: three white dots on near-black
Icon, greyscale for single-colour and print useDownload PNGDownload SVG
Dawn symbol board on iPhone with a composed message
Symbol board, iPhoneDownload PNG
Dawn voice creation screen on iPhone
Personal voice creationDownload PNG
Dawn Voice Studio on iPhone showing voice shaping controls
Voice StudioDownload PNG
Dawn symbol board on iPad
Symbol board, iPadDownload PNG

Accuracy notes for writers

Things often gotten wrong about apps like this, stated plainly: Dawn is not a medical device and does not diagnose anything. The personal voice is created from a live recording made in the app; there is no path for importing someone else's audio into voice creation. "No data collected" includes crash reports and analytics, not just personal data. AAC is used by people of all ages, not only children.