Question 1

What is Reed?

Accepted Answer

Reed is a text-to-speech board for part-time AAC. Tap a phrase tile or type a sentence, and your phone speaks it aloud, or shows it full-screen in large type. It is built for autistic adults and teens whose speech is intermittent or unreliable — you can usually talk, but access to speech comes and goes. Reed is one screen with one job. There is no account, no sign-up, and nothing to set up before you use it.

Question 2

What does Reed collect about me?

Accepted Answer

Nothing. Reed has no accounts, no sign-up, no analytics, and no ads. The phrases you write and the settings you choose stay on your device, and Reed has no server to send them to. You can read the full privacy policy from the app’s settings and from this site.

Question 3

Which voices can I use?

Accepted Answer

Reed uses the text-to-speech voices already on your phone. You choose which one, and you can set its pitch and speed so it sounds like you. Reed only lists voices that report they do not need a network. If the voice you want is not there, you can add it from your phone’s system speech settings, then pick it in Reed.

Question 4

How do I change the tiles?

Accepted Answer

Open edit from the board. You can rewrite what a tile shows and what it says out loud — Reed keeps those as two separate things, so a short label on the tile can speak a longer sentence. You can also clear a tile you do not use. Your edits are yours, and Reed does not overwrite them.

Question 5

Who is Reed for?

Accepted Answer

Reed is for people whose speech is intermittent, unreliable, or insufficient — most often autistic adults who go non-speaking during shutdown, overload, or exhaustion. Part-time AAC is not a backup plan for when speech fails; it is the plan. You can pre-write the phrases you tend to need during a calm window, so they are ready when speaking is not available. Reed does not assume you are a full-time AAC user, and it does not push you to become one.

Question 6

How can I check the privacy claims for myself?

Accepted Answer

On Android, Reed ships without the INTERNET permission, and that permission list is shown on the Google Play page before you install. You can confirm the central privacy claim without installing Reed and without taking anyone’s word for it. A store privacy label is filled in by the developer; the permission list is a fact the platform holds. On iPhone and iPad there is no equivalent, platform-verified network guarantee, so on iOS this rests on Reed having no network code.

Question 7

I tapped a tile and nothing was spoken. What happened?

Accepted Answer

When speech does not play, your words go up on the screen in large type, so you are still in the conversation. The usual causes are that no voice is selected yet, or that the chosen voice is not installed on the phone. Open settings and pick another voice. Reed does not stay silent — if it cannot speak, it shows.

Question 8

How do I move my board to a new phone?

Accepted Answer

Use the export in settings to save your board, then import it on the new phone. The transfer is something you do yourself; nothing is synced through a cloud account, because there is no account.

Question 9

Is Reed a medical device?

Accepted Answer

No. Reed is a communication tool, not a medical device, and it does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. It is not a substitute for professional care. Reed is offered as-is, for you to use in whatever way is useful to you.

Question 10

Will my board end up in a cloud backup?

Accepted Answer

On Android, Reed turns automatic cloud backup off, so your board is not copied to Google Drive. To move your board to a new phone, you use the export in settings — a step you start yourself. On iPhone and iPad, whether files are included in an iCloud backup is decided by the operating system, and Apple treats an app’s request to exclude a file as guidance, not a promise. Reed asks the system to keep your board out of iCloud backup, and if you would rather it not be backed up at all, you can turn off iCloud backup for Reed in your iPhone settings.

Question 11

Can Reed sound less robotic?

Accepted Answer

The voices come from your device, so the quality depends on which text-to-speech voices are installed. Many phones let you download higher-quality offline voices in the system speech settings. Once installed, they appear in Reed’s voice list, as long as they report they need no network.

Question 12

What does Reed cost?

Accepted Answer

Reed is free, with no account and no in-app purchases. Because there is no account and no server, there is no entitlement that can expire and no service that can be shut down — Reed keeps working even if its developer stops maintaining it.

Question 13

Does Reed work offline?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Reed’s own code has no network features and makes no network requests. Speech is produced by your device’s built-in text-to-speech engine, and Reed only offers voices that report they need no network. Because Reed does not depend on a connection, it keeps working in a shop, a car, or anywhere with no signal.

Question 14

Can I say anything I want, including swearing?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Reed does not filter what you write or what it says. There is no profanity warning, no confirmation step, and no “are you sure”. It is your voice, and the words are yours to choose.

Question 15

Is Reed available to download yet?

Accepted Answer

Reed is being tested with a small group first, before a wider release. This site is where its plans, privacy, and support live in the meantime. If you want to know when it is more widely available, the support email on this page is the way to reach out.

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