Welcome
Pie Talker is a communication app for anyone who needs a voice. Whether you're a parent helping your child express their first words, a teacher supporting a student in the classroom, or a hospital nurse helping a patient who can't speak right now — you're in the right place.
This app turns a tablet, phone, or computer into a communication board. Tap a tile, and it speaks. Build a phrase from multiple tiles, and hear them together. It's that simple.
Pie Talker works entirely in your browser. There's nothing to install (though you can add it to your home screen for easy access). It works offline, so a shaky Wi-Fi connection will never get in the way of someone's voice.
Getting Started
The first time you open Pie Talker, a short setup wizard will walk you through the basics. It takes about a minute.
The Setup Wizard
- Name — Enter the communicator's name (or skip it — it's optional). This personalizes the experience.
- Communication Stage — Choose where the communicator is on their expressive journey. This controls how many tiles appear on the grid. Don't worry about getting it exactly right; you can change it anytime.
- Life Context Packs — Select which vocabulary packs to include. Core Communication is always on. Add packs that match the communicator's current life — school, social activities, medical care, and more.
- People & Interests — Add important people (Mom, Dad, siblings, grandparents, teachers, friends) and pets by name. Add interests and favorites too. The app automatically creates a "My People" folder with ready-to-use tiles for each person and pet. You can add photos later. This step is optional — skip it and add people anytime in settings.
- Language — Pick the display language for tile labels and symbol search. You can add a second language later.
- Look & Feel — Choose a design style (Playful, Modern, Classic, or High Visibility) and a display mode (light, dark, or match your system). Tap Start Talking and you're ready to go.
Quick Start for Hospitals
You can also tap Use Defaults on the first step to skip the wizard entirely and start with standard settings.
Your First Words
The communication screen has one job: help someone speak. Here's how it works.
Tap to Speak
Tap any tile on the grid and it speaks the word aloud. That's the most basic interaction — and for many communicators, it's enough to start having conversations right away.
Build a Phrase
To say something longer, tap multiple tiles in sequence. Each word you tap appears in the phrase strip at the top of the screen. When your phrase is ready, tap the green Speak button to hear it all together as a natural sentence.
Edit the Phrase
- Tap a word in the phrase strip to select it, then tap again to remove it.
- Tap the backspace button to delete the last word.
- Tap the clear button (the X) to start fresh.
The Grid
Folders
Some tiles are folders — they open a new set of tiles when you tap them. For example, tapping a "Food" folder might reveal tiles for "pizza," "apple," "juice," and more. You'll see a breadcrumb trail at the top showing where you are. Tap any breadcrumb to jump back.
"Where I Am" Context
Near the top of the screen, you'll see a situation selector. Tap it and choose the communicator's current situation — Home, School, Mealtime, Playtime, Bedtime, Feeling Sick, and more (16 options). This helps the prediction engine suggest more relevant tiles. For example, setting "Mealtime" boosts food and drink words, while "Feeling Sick" brings up medical vocabulary like "hurt" and "medicine." Suggestions also respect the communicator's stage — Stage 1 users see only core words, while higher stages unlock more advanced vocabulary.
Search
Looking for a specific word? The search function scans the entire vocabulary tree — including words inside folders. If the communicator can spell, this is the fastest way to find any tile.
Customizing Tiles
Long-Press to Edit
Press and hold any tile (or right-click on a computer) to open the tile editor. From here you can change everything about that tile.
What You Can Customize
- Label — Change what the tile says and displays.
- Symbol — Search thousands of ARASAAC symbols to find the perfect image. Symbols are free and available in many languages.
- Custom Image — Add a personal photo using your camera or by uploading from your device. Perfect for family members, pets, your home, or anything personal. Custom photos take priority over symbols — the communicator sees Mom's actual face, not a generic pictogram.
- Pronunciation — If the voice doesn't say a word quite right, add a pronunciation hint. Type it the way it should sound.
- Audio Recording — Record your own voice (or anyone's voice) to play instead of the computer voice. You can trim the recording to remove unwanted sounds at the start or end.
- Category — Set the Fitzgerald Key color category (noun, verb, adjective, etc.) to help organize tiles by part of speech.
- Visibility — Hide tiles you don't need right now without deleting them.
Adding New Tiles
Tap the + button on the grid to add a new tile or folder. Choose whether it's a word tile or a folder, give it a label, pick a symbol, and you're set.
Communication Stages
Everyone's communication journey is different. Pie Talker adapts the grid density to match where the communicator is. Think of stages as "how many tiles should we show?" — not as a judgment of ability.
You can change the stage at any time in Settings. The app also tracks usage patterns and may gently suggest when a communicator might be ready for the next stage. These suggestions are always just that — suggestions. The communicator and their team decide when to advance.
Context Packs
Context packs are curated vocabulary sets for different life situations. You can turn them on and off anytime — the words stay in the system, ready when you need them.
- Core Communication
- Early Learning
- School Life
- Social & Fun
- Independent Living
- Medical & Care
- Community & Relationships
- Workplace
- Hospital & Acute Care
Core Communication is always on — it includes the essential words everyone needs: yes, no, want, help, stop, feelings, and more.
Hospital & Acute Care is designed for patients in medical settings. It includes a pain scale, body map ("where it hurts"), medical needs (water, bathroom, medication), emergency words, and status responses (yes, no, I'm okay, please repeat). This pack powers the Quick Start guest mode.
Board Templates
Templates are pre-built communication boards designed for specific needs. Instead of building a vocabulary from scratch, you can start with a template and customize from there.
Available Templates
- Starter Board — 12 essential tiles for early communicators. Yes, no, more, stop, help, want, eat, drink, go, play, bathroom, hi. Perfect for Stage 1–2.
- School Board — 24 tiles organized in folders: Classroom, Subjects, Social, and Needs. Designed for school-age communicators at Stage 2–3.
- Medical Board — Communication tiles for medical settings. Covers pain, needs, people, and health status. Good for Stage 3.
- Social Board — Tiles for social interaction: greetings, feelings, opinions, and activities. Great for building friendships at Stage 3–4.
Each template comes with ARASAAC symbols pre-assigned, so tiles have meaningful images from the moment you apply them.
Look & Feel
Everyone deserves a communication tool that feels like theirs. Pie Talker offers deep customization without overwhelming you with options.
Design Aesthetics
- Playful — Bright colors, large rounded shapes, generous spacing. Friendly and inviting.
- Modern — Clean and contemporary with a subtle palette. Feels like a mainstream app.
- Classic — Professional, minimal, and refined. Understated elegance.
- High Visibility — Maximum contrast, extra-large text, bold borders. Designed for visual impairments.
These are visual styles, not age categories. A 40-year-old might love Playful. A 12-year-old might prefer Classic. Choose what feels right.
More Customization
- Dark mode — Light, dark, or match your system preference.
- Accent color — Pick any color to personalize buttons, highlights, and the phrase strip.
- Tile shape — Rounded corners, square corners, or borderless tiles.
- Font choice — System default, OpenDyslexic (for dyslexia support), or Lexie Readable.
- Font size override — Bump text up to 175% for better readability.
- Icon/Label balance — Control how much emphasis goes to the symbol versus the text. Five levels from "icon only" to "label only." Pre-literate communicators may prefer icon-heavy; readers may prefer label-heavy.
- Fitzgerald Key colors — Color-code tiles by part of speech (nouns are orange, verbs are green, etc.). Three modes: Auto, Accent, or Full Background.
Accessibility
Communication is a human right, and Pie Talker is built to be accessible to people with a wide range of abilities. If the communicator has limited mobility, vision challenges, or uses assistive technology, there are tools built in to help.
Switch Scanning
Switch scanning allows someone to navigate the grid using one or two switches (or keyboard keys). The app highlights items in a pattern, and the user presses their switch to select.
Three scanning patterns are available:
- Row-Column — The most common pattern. Rows highlight one at a time. Select a row, then individual tiles within that row highlight. Select the tile you want.
- Column-Row — Columns highlight first, then individual tiles within the selected column. Useful when the target column is predictable.
- Linear — Tiles highlight one at a time from left to right, top to bottom. The simplest pattern, best for grids with few tiles.
You can adjust the scanning speed (how long each item stays highlighted), the number of loops before timeout, and which keys or switches trigger advance and select.
Dwell Selection
Dwell selection activates a tile when you hover over it for a set amount of time. A visual progress ring shows how close you are to selection. This is useful for users who can aim a pointer (mouse, eye tracker, head tracker) but have difficulty clicking.
Large Targets
The default touch targets are already larger than the accessibility minimum (56px vs the 44px standard). For users who need even bigger targets, switch to Large (72px) or Extra Large mode. All buttons, including the SOS and quick phrase buttons, scale up too.
Keyboard Navigation
Every tile is reachable with the keyboard. Use arrow keys to move between tiles, Enter or Space to activate, and Tab to move between regions (grid, phrase strip, controls). The focus ring is always visible.
High Contrast
The High Visibility aesthetic meets WCAG AAA contrast standards (7:1 ratio). Combined with the dark mode and large font options, it provides maximum readability for users with low vision.
Language & Translation
Pie Talker supports 17+ languages through the ARASAAC symbol library. You can do much more than just pick a language.
Display Language vs. Speech Language
The display language controls what text appears on tiles and how symbol searches work. The speech language controls what language the voice uses when speaking. Normally these are the same, but they don't have to be.
Translator Mode
Set the display language to one language and the speech language to another. For example, display tiles in English but speak in Spanish. This is perfect for language learning, bilingual households, or communicating with someone who speaks a different language.
Dual-Language Labels
Turn on dual-language mode to show a second language label below each tile. The primary label stays on top; the secondary label appears in a smaller font underneath. Both languages visible at a glance. This is great for bilingual communicators or anyone learning a new language.
For Caregivers
You're the person behind the scenes making sure this tool works well for your communicator. Here's what's available to you.
Settings Panel
Tap the gear icon to open settings. Everything is organized into tabs:
- Profile — Name, communication stage, context packs, family member names, interests
- Vocabulary — Board templates, vocabulary builder, OBF import/export for sharing boards with other AAC apps
- Appearance — Aesthetic, tile shape, accent color, icon/label balance, fonts, Fitzgerald colors
- Symbols — Skin tone, hair color, black & white mode
- Language — Display language, speech language, translator mode, dual-language labels
- Content — Content category toggles (social & fun, profanity, bathroom humor, sexual health, medical explicit). Control what vocabulary is visible
- Access — Switch scanning, dwell selection, tile size, grid columns
- More — Prediction on/off, enhanced suggestions, audit log, caregiver lock, reset options
Content Controls
The Content tab puts you in control of what vocabulary is visible. Everything exists in the system — you decide what's active. Content categories let you enable or disable groups of vocabulary: social & fun, profanity, bathroom humor, sexual health, medical explicit. Anger and negative emotions are always available — the ability to express "I'm angry" or "leave me alone" is a fundamental right.
Audit Log
The audit log records every setting change: who changed it, when, and what was modified. It's a transparency tool, especially useful for therapy teams where multiple caregivers share responsibility. The log keeps the most recent 500 entries.
AI & Prediction Toggle
The prediction engine suggests tiles based on usage patterns, time of day, and context. It's on by default, but you can turn it off with one toggle. The toggle is prominent and clearly labeled. When prediction is on, it only suggests — it never auto-selects.
Caregiver Lock
Prevent accidental access to settings and the tile editor. Three levels: no lock, long-press (hold the gear icon for 2 seconds), or PIN (enter a 4-digit code). The communicator can always tap tiles and speak — the lock only protects editing functions.
Tips & Tricks
Quick Phrases
Quick phrases are pre-composed phrases that speak with one tap. Look for the quick phrase bar above the grid. Long-press any quick phrase to edit it. You can even record audio for quick phrases — for example, record a family member saying "I love you" in their own voice.
Prediction Row
When prediction is enabled, a row of suggested tiles appears above the grid. These are based on what the communicator has said before, the time of day, and the current context. Tap a prediction to add it to the phrase, or ignore them entirely — they never get in the way.
With Enhanced Suggestions turned on (in Settings > More), you'll also see a "Discover" section with words from the full ARASAAC library that aren't in your vocabulary yet. Tap one to instantly add it as a new tile. This is how the vocabulary grows naturally — the communicator discovers new words in context, right when they need them. All suggestions respect your content safety settings.
Emergency SOS
The red SOS button is always visible at the top of the screen, no matter where you are in the folder hierarchy. Tap it and the device announces an emergency alert. This tile cannot be hidden or moved.
Works Offline
Once you've loaded Pie Talker, it works without an internet connection. All tiles, symbols, and settings are stored on the device. The only thing that requires connectivity is searching for new ARASAAC symbols.
Install as an App
Pie Talker is a Progressive Web App. On most devices, you can "install" it to your home screen for a full-screen, app-like experience without any app store. Look for "Add to Home Screen" in your browser's menu.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- Arrow keys — Navigate between tiles
- Enter or Space — Activate a tile
- Tab — Move between regions
- Escape — Close editors and dialogs