The problem
The world runs on speech. Not everyone can.
Ordering food. Telling a doctor where it hurts. Asking a stranger for directions. Nearly every interaction with another human assumes you can produce clear speech, on demand, in seconds.
When you can't, the problem is precise: your thinking is intact — the output channel is broken. People start speaking to your companion instead of you. They assume you can't hear, or can't understand. They walk away before you've had a chance to answer.
And the moment it matters most is always mid-conversation, with someone standing in front of you, patience draining. A solution that takes ten taps and a menu isn't a solution. Seconds are the whole game.
How many people
This is not a small corner of the world.
people worldwide
could benefit from augmentative and alternative communication — roughly 1 in 80 of everyone alive.
strokes affect language
Of ~12 million strokes a year, about a third leave some degree of aphasia — words trapped behind a wall.
of Parkinson's cases
develop speech and voice changes over time. ALS, MS and cerebral palsy tell similar stories.
autistic people
are minimally speaking or non-speaking. Speech and intelligence are different things.
Published estimates (Beukelman & Light; stroke and aphasia literature; Parkinson's speech-disorder studies). Rounded — the point is the scale, and every one of these numbers is a person mid-sentence.
And beyond all of it: laryngitis, anxiety, a migraine, recovery from surgery. Everyone borrows a voice sometimes.
Why it's still unsolved
The tools exist. They miss the person.
Built for children
Most AAC apps are picture boards and cartoon symbols. Handing one to a 54-year-old stroke survivor is quietly humiliating.
Priced like hospital gear
Dedicated AAC devices run hundreds to thousands of dollars. The phone already in your pocket can do the job.
Too many taps
Category → subcategory → page 3 → phrase. The conversation ended four taps ago.
Useless offline
Cloud-only tools fail in basements, planes and dead zones — exactly where you can't afford them to.
The product
Two taps to be understood.
That's the rule Tacit is designed around — from anywhere in the app. If a screen needs a third tap, the screen is wrong.
01
Type rough notes
Fragments are fine. You're mid-conversation — nobody types essays.
02
It becomes a sentence
AI rephrases it in your voice — polite, first-person, yours to undo.
03
Show it, or speak it
Full-screen type that sizes itself to be read across a counter — or a voice that's heard even with the ring switch off.
Around that core: ready phrases for restaurants, medical visits, travel and emergencies — all editable, all yours — and your own saved phrases for the things you say every day.
Also in the app
Built for more than one conversation.
The core is showing and speaking. Everything else grew around it as the build went on.
Translate across any counter
Type in your language — your words appear full-screen in theirs, large enough to read across a counter or desk.
- Two-way certainty: Your own original sentence stays visible and editable underneath, so you always know exactly what is being shown.
- Natural on-device speech: Tap Speak to hear the translation read aloud in high-quality native voices.
- Private by design: Once you download a language, translation runs on your phone with nothing sent anywhere. Until then it goes through a private relay that never stores your words or trains on them.
Six contexts, arranged your way
Restaurant, medical, travel, emergency and two more — long-press and drag to put them in the order you actually reach for. Every phrase inside any of them is yours to add, edit or swipe away.
Nothing you delete comes back
Empty out a context on purpose and it stays empty — no app quietly re-seeding its own defaults behind your back. What you keep is what you chose to keep.
Privacy
Nothing you type leaves your phone.
What you need to say — to a doctor, to family, to a stranger — is nobody's business but yours.
On-device AI
On newer iPhones, rephrasing runs entirely on the phone. No network, no server, no exceptions.
No account. No tracking.
There is nothing to sign up for. Your phrases are stored on your device and nowhere else.
Works offline
In a basement, on a plane, in a dead zone — the app still shows and still speaks. Communication can't depend on bars.
The rules it's built by
Decisions we won't walk back.
Nothing held back
One subscription, everything in it — showing, speaking, translation, every context and the emergency phrases. No tiers, no feature waiting behind a higher plan.
Built for the worst day
Speaks through the silent switch. Keeps the screen awake while showing. Falls back gracefully when there's no AI and no signal.
Adult by design
No cartoon symbols, no picture boards, no bubbly type. A tool you'd hand across a desk, not a toy.
Your words, always
AI suggests; you decide. Nothing is shown or spoken until you choose it, and every rewrite has an Undo.
Available now
Get Tacit for iPhone.
Understood without being said. Showing, speaking, and live translation — ready whenever you need them.
