How to use PicTalk

A 5-minute guide for parents, caregivers, and teachers. No tech skills needed — if you can tap a picture, you can do this.

1Get started

Open it, then install it

Open PicTalk in any web browser (Chrome, Safari, or Edge).
Tap your browser's menu and choose "Add to Home Screen." Now it's an app icon — and it works offline from then on.
Tap any picture and PicTalk says the word out loud. That's it!

2The basics

Tap a picture — it speaks the word and adds it to the bar at the top.
Tap a few to build a sentence, like "I want apple," then press the green ▶ Speak button to say the whole thing.
Use the ✕ to clear, and the row of categories (People, Food, Feelings…) to find more words.

3Personalize

Tap the ⚙ gear and solve the little math question (this keeps kids out of settings).
Under "Add a personal tile," type a word (like "Mama"), pick a category, and add a real photo from your device.
Now your child can tap a real picture of the people and things they love. You can also choose the speaking voice and speed here.
Under "Look & feel," pick a dark or high-contrast theme, make tiles bigger or smaller, and color-code words by type.

4For readers

For someone who can read and spell (for example, after a stroke or with ALS), open the ⚙ gear → Mode → Keyboard.
It opens on ready-made phrase tiles — Urgent, Needs, and Social phrases speak instantly with one tap. Add your own under ⭐ Mine.
🧩 Starters like "I need…" drop their words into the message — finish the sentence on the ⌨ Type tab, where word prediction learns the words used most.

5Hands-free

For someone who can't touch the screen, turn on ⚙ gear → Switch scanning.
PicTalk highlights the choices one group at a time. The person presses a switch — the spacebar, Enter, a tap anywhere, or a plug-in button — to pick.
Set the speed to match the person, and turn on speaking each item so they can choose by ear.
If shaky hands cause accidental presses, set "Hold the switch to select" and "Ignore repeat presses" in the same settings.

6Make it stick

Model it. Use PicTalk yourself while you talk ("I want a snack") so the person sees how it works — this is how people learn it fastest.
Start small. A handful of motivating words (favorite foods, people, "more," "all done") beats a huge board at first.
Let mistakes happen. Exploring and tapping is how someone learns — there's nothing to break.
It's all private. Photos and words stay on the device. Nothing is uploaded.

Tell us about the person it's for, and we'll help you build the perfect board — for free. You don't have to figure this out alone.