Touch a key and watch the balloon fill. Slide or poke around as much as you need. No key is accepted until the balloon finishes filling.

Dwell time controls how long you stay on a key before it is accepted. Adjust the slider to a comfortable pace, then hold until its balloon fills to save your choice. Releasing early keeps the previous setting. Changing this setting always requires at least one second. Move the slider all the way left for Tap mode, where keys activate on release. Settings lets you choose whether this slider appears on the main screen or inside Settings.

In Tap mode, moving off a key before releasing cancels the tap.

Settings → Message area offers Compact, Standard, or Large. Choose the space you prefer for composing and reviewing messages; your choice is saved on this device.

Letter case. Settings → Letter case enables mixed-case typing with Shift and Caps Lock. It is off by default. Uppercase-only mode and Caps Lock uppercase pasted text and inserted phrases; one-letter Shift preserves inserted phrases’ capitalization. Existing messages and saved phrases stay unchanged.

Position the cursor. Tap the message where you want the cursor, or use the left and right arrow keys to move it. Holding an arrow moves the cursor repeatedly. Use Return to start a new line.

Copy your message. Dwell on your message without moving. After half a second, the COPY balloon appears. Keep holding until it fills to copy the message. In Dwell mode, it uses your selected dwell time; in Tap mode, it takes another 1.5 seconds. Releasing early cancels copying.

Use 123 / @#$ for numbers and symbols. Backspace defaults to No repeat. Settings → Backspace offers Steady repeat or Gradual acceleration while held. Lift or leave to stop. Tap mode deletes once per tap.

Install on your phone or tablet. Install Communicate on your home screen to launch it in its own app window. On iPad, open it in Safari and choose Share → Add to Home Screen → Add. On Android, open it in Chrome and choose Install app or Add to Home screen from the menu, then confirm. Open it online first and check offline readiness in the Speech tab. Speech requires an offline voice when disconnected.

Works offline (after initial online setup). Typing, suggestions, history, favorites, and copying work offline. Speech also needs an offline voice installed on your device. Check readiness and test your voice in Help / About → Speech.

Open Settings using the gear in the footer to choose spoken feedback, vibration, and word groups: Everyday words, General dictionary, Medical terms, and Medications. Medical terms includes Conditions, Symptoms, Anatomy, Lab tests, Procedures, and Abbreviations. The Medical terms checkbox selects or clears every category; a dash means some categories are enabled. Choices are saved locally.

In Settings → Typing feedback, ECHO: Letters speaks each letter as you type. ECHO: Words speaks completed words when you enter a space or select a completion. You can enable either, both, or neither. VIBRATE provides a short vibration when a key is accepted, on supported devices.

Favorites / History. Open Favorites / History to insert a saved message at the cursor and build phrases, or save a spoken message as a favorite. History keeps the last 25 distinct messages whose speech starts through SPEAK or a saved phrase’s speaker icon. Repeating a message moves it to the top. Echoes, voice previews, and speech tests are excluded. Pin favorites to keep them at the top; use Reorder Pins to arrange them. Other favorites rank by use and recency, with a 30-day half-life. Inserting or speaking a favorite counts as a use. Delete controls offer Undo. Use CLEAR first if you want to start with an empty message. The speaker beside a saved phrase reads it aloud without inserting it, closing the list, or changing your current message.

If you like this input method, Communicate Keyboard offers the same familiar interface as an installable Android keyboard, bringing this style of entry to other apps. Move your settings and Favorites.

Ideas and feedback are welcome through Support tickets.

If the keyboard works but you hear no audio, run this test. If you hear nothing, turn up your device’s media volume and check whether audio is playing through headphones or a Bluetooth device. Communicate cannot check your device’s volume or mute setting.

Opens an email draft containing diagnostics, without your message text. Review it and send it yourself; nothing is sent automatically.

Selecting a voice speaks its name in that voice. Use TEST SPEECH for a longer preview. Available voices depend on your browser and device.

Offline use. Open the app online once and wait for offline readiness below. You can then reopen it without a connection while this browser retains the saved files. Typing, suggestions, history, favorites, and copying work offline. Speech requires a voice that works offline; test your chosen voice with the network disconnected. Support and website links need internet access.

Preparing offline access…

Read the full privacy policy (online).

Your messages stay on your device. History, favorites, and settings are saved exclusively in your browser. You can clear just your history at any time. Clearing site data removes everything: saved messages, settings, and offline access. Communicate collects no usage data. On request, a pre-addressed support email containing diagnostic information can be composed for review and manual sending.

Preprod availability. On a fresh online load, Communicate checks once for a public test-version status marker and may offer preprod through the hanging sign destination chooser. This request includes no cookies, message text, settings, or Favorites. Cached offline loads and returns to an open app do not check; there is no polling.

Move to Communicate Keyboard. You can explicitly transfer typing settings, Favorites and pins, and optionally spoken History to the installed keyboard on the same Android device. The keyboard previews the data before importing. Your web originals stay here; the transfer is not uploaded to DEJ Software and is not automatic sync. Voice settings remain separate.

Clipboard controls. On the symbols keyboard, COPY MESSAGE copies your whole message; PASTE inserts clipboard text at the cursor. More symbols switches between the two symbol pages.

Clipboard access. When you dwell on the current message, Communicate opens the COPY balloon. Keep holding until it fills to copy your displayed message to the clipboard. Your browser may ask for permission to both read and write the clipboard; that wording is controlled by the browser. Communicate writes to the clipboard when you copy. It also accepts text you explicitly paste; it never reads the clipboard automatically.

Communicate

A forgiving keyboard that speaks for you.

Communicate is a text-to-speech app for people who cannot speak, but with a forgiving and enabling keyboard for those with diminished fine motor control. Like a Speak & Spell, designed to help you communicate.

Created by Dave Jenkins of DEJ Software to help his sister, Donna, communicate during chemotherapy. After 46 years of traditional software development, this was written entirely using ChatGPT / Codex, without writing a single line of code. Working prototype in two hours. Shipped in a week.

All rights retained by DEJ Software.
Free for everyone to use.

If you find Communicate useful, you can buy Dave a coffee. Support is optional—the app stays completely free and ad free.

Checked in: October 19, 2026, 8:47:22 PM EDT