LumaVoice User Guide

Onboarding

When you first open LumaVoice, the onboarding flow walks you through setup:

LumaVoice now uses a four-tab layout at the bottom of the screen, replacing the old gear menu and toolbar buttons. Everything is one tap away:

The main screen is your communication hub. Here's what you'll find:

• Tab Bar — Four tabs at the bottom of the screen: Communicate, Dashboard, Tools, and Settings. The Communicate tab is the main communication screen where you build and speak sentences.
• Environment Pill — Shows the current environment (Home, School, Therapy, Community) in the sentence strip row. Long-press to switch environments.
• Sentence Strip — The bar showing tiles you've tapped. Scrolls horizontally to accommodate longer sentences and auto-scrolls to keep your latest word visible.
• Play & Clear Buttons — Green Play button speaks the sentence aloud, red X clears the strip. Both buttons are the same size for easy targeting.
• Unified Suggestion Row — Smart predictions and AI phrase suggestions appear together in a single row below the sentence strip.
• Category Bar — Scrollable row of categories to filter tiles. Emergency and Core are always pinned first. Favorites appears right after Routines for quick access.
• Tile Grid — The main grid of communication tiles. Tiles respond with a bounce animation and glow when tapped.

Quick Actions

• Clear — Tap the red X to remove all tiles from the sentence strip
• Undo — Swipe left on the sentence strip to undo the last tile added

Tap the keyboard button to type any custom message. Great for:

• Names that don't have tiles
• Addresses or phone numbers
• Phrases not yet available as tiles
• Spelling out unfamiliar words

LumaVoice includes 1,050+ pre-made tiles organized across 14+ categories:

Scroll the category bar to navigate. Emergency and Core are always pinned at the front. The Recent Tiles section shows your most recently used tiles for quick access.

Star your most-used tiles for instant access from the Favorites category, pinned right after Routines in the category bar.

To remove a favorite, long-press the tile again and tap "Remove from Favorites." No more navigating through multiple categories for everyday words.

Create personalized tiles for words and phrases unique to your life:

LumaVoice learns your communication patterns and suggests the next tile you might want. For example, if you often say "I want water," after tapping "I" the app may suggest "want," and after "want" it may suggest "water."

Predictions improve over time as the app learns your habits. They appear as highlighted tiles in the grid for quick one-tap access.

Intelligent phrase suggestions appear alongside smart predictions in the unified suggestion row as you build sentences. The system combines multiple sources to suggest full phrases you might want to say:

Enable cloud-powered AI suggestions in Settings → AI & Predictions. Local suggestions work without an internet connection.

AI Sentence Polish automatically refines your tile-built sentences into natural, grammatically correct speech:

Enable in Settings → AI & Predictions. Requires an internet connection for processing.

Switch between four profiles to surface the most relevant categories for your current setting:

Long-press the Environment Pill in the sentence strip row to switch environments, or change it in Settings → Environment & Routines.

Learning Mode

Track tile mastery through three stages:

Literacy Support

All tiles display text labels alongside emojis. Phonetic hints are available for emerging readers. Adjust literacy settings to match the user's reading level in Settings → Learning & Progress.

Modeling Mode helps caregivers and therapists demonstrate effective AAC use. Communication made during Modeling Mode is tracked separately from independent communication data.

Expanded Structured Scenarios

Modeling Mode now includes step-by-step guided scenarios across four categories:

Each scenario includes visual tile highlighting to guide the caregiver through the modeling steps, plus completion tracking to monitor which scenarios have been practiced. Access from the Tools tab.

Go to the Tools tab and tap Emotion Check-In to access:

• Feelings Check-In — Choose from Happy, Sad, Angry, Scared, or Calm
• Intensity Scale — Rate intensity from 1 to 5
• Coping Strategies — Guided breathing, counting, and movement activities
• Emotion Journal — Track emotional patterns over time

The Unified Care Dashboard brings together all caregiver, therapist, and educator tools in one comprehensive view. Access it from the Dashboard tab in the bottom navigation.

Purpose-built tools for behavior analysis professionals:

• Session Tracking — Record therapy sessions with timestamped data
• First-Then Boards — Create visual schedules for structured activities
• Session History — Review past sessions with CSV export for external analysis
• Goal Tracking — Set goals and add progress notes over time

Access from the Dashboard's RBT/BCBA tab.

Speech-Language Pathology professionals can access:

• Client Overview — Summary of communication patterns and progress
• Progress Reports — Generate documentation for stakeholders
• Goal Alignment — Map app usage to therapy objectives
• Professional Documentation — Export-ready clinical notes

Access from the Dashboard's SLP tab.

LumaVoice provides contextual coaching suggestions based on evidence-based AAC strategies. These tips help caregivers and therapists support effective communication in the moment.

Toggle coaching tips on or off in Settings → Professional Tools.

Access your most frequently-used tiles and phrases right from your wrist. The Apple Watch companion provides quick communication on the go without needing to pull out your phone.

Manage Watch settings via Settings → Professional Tools.

Your data syncs automatically across all your Apple devices via iCloud:

• Automatic Sync — Custom tiles, settings, and history stay in sync
• Import/Export — Back up and restore your data manually at any time
• Encrypted — All synced data is encrypted in transit and at rest

• App Lock — Protect with Face ID or Touch ID
• Local Storage — Communication data stays on your device by default
• Encrypted Sync — iCloud data is fully encrypted
• Encrypted AI — AI Polish connections use end-to-end encryption
• Parental Lock — Lock the Dashboard and Settings tabs behind Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode. Children can freely use Communicate and Tools for communication, but cannot change settings or view clinical data. The lock automatically re-engages when the app goes to background. Enable in Settings → Privacy & Security.

LumaVoice now supports five languages with complete translations for all 1,050+ tiles and UI elements:

Change your language in Settings → Voice & Language. All tiles, categories, and UI elements update instantly. Text-to-speech uses optimized voices for each language.

Customize how LumaVoice looks with seven built-in themes. Theme colors now apply consistently across the entire app — tiles, category bar, sentence strip, buttons, suggestions, and tab bar all update together.

Change your theme in Settings → General → Appearance.

• Scanning Mode — Switch access for users who cannot use touch
• Eye Tracking — Navigate and select tiles with eye gaze
• Adjustable Tiles — Sizes from Small to Extra Large, 2–5 column layouts
• VoiceOver — Full compatibility with Apple's screen reader
• Haptic Feedback — Choose Light, Medium, or Heavy vibration intensity on iPhone, or tap sounds on iPad. Can be turned off entirely.
• Tile Tap Animation — Visual bounce and blue glow confirmation on every tap

Configure all accessibility options in Settings → Accessibility.

Point your camera at real-world objects and LumaVoice matches them to communication tiles in real time. A fast way to find the right tile when you're not sure which category it's in.

Manage your subscription in Settings → Subscription or through your Apple ID settings.

The Settings screen is organized into five grouped pages:

For Users

• Start simple — begin with core tiles and build up
• Use smart predictions to communicate faster
• Create custom tiles for your most personal words
• Add your go-to tiles to Favorites for one-tap access
• Switch environments to surface the right tiles for your setting
• Enable AI Polish for more natural-sounding speech
• Try AI Phrase Suggestions to discover full phrases you might want to say

For Caregivers

• Use Modeling Mode to demonstrate AAC use — try the new structured scenarios
• Track progress in the Unified Care Dashboard for a complete picture
• Set up Therapy Mode for professional session tracking
• Review analytics in the Dashboard to understand communication patterns
• Export data for reports and IEP documentation
• Enable Parental Lock to keep Settings safe from little hands

Accessibility Tips

• Use larger tile sizes for easier targeting
• Enable Scanning Mode for switch access
• Try Eye Tracking for hands-free navigation
• Adjust haptic feedback intensity to your preference, or turn it off
• Use Dark Mode or a calming theme like Ocean for reduced eye strain
• Try High Contrast theme for maximum visibility