Using an AAC app for speech?

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Speech suddenly shuts off during times of sensory overload for me. Non-verbal shutdowns can last anywhere from 5 minutes... to all day. This means I give up and go home without getting my errands completed, as I cannot communicate.

Soon I am thankfully getting a tablet and will buy a speech app. Does anyone else use one? Which AAC app do you use? Were you trained with it, or learned it yourself through tutorials?

Some examples of AAC apps are ProloQuo2Go, TalkTablet, Autismate, Tobii Dynavox Compass, and Touch Chat.
Anyway, I'd love to hear your experiences with AAC apps!

I've used Clarospeak for non-verbal episodes and communicating with my therapist etc.

The thing that gets annoying for me is that the speech is slow, so I tend to end up showing the person what's typed on my screen and letting them read it themselves instead of using the speech.
This method seems easier for errands, ordering food etc when in public and doesn't draw so much attention as electronic speech.
Sometimes the reaction to it is embarrassing.

For people I know well I will use the text to speech function.

I'm planning to have a kid, and just in case the kid turns out nonverbal (my autism is genetic) I'm planning to teach the kid to use AAC as well as speech from birth. Even if the kid is NT or HFA, at least they get to communicate when they're too young to pronounce words clearly (most toddlers understand more than they can say), and then outgrow the system once their speech improves.

My personal favorite is CoughDrop. The reasons I like it are:

* they have a Core 112 board available that has all the most commonly used words and plenty of room to add more words
* no requirement for the buttons to form a list, so you can make sure all buttons stay in the same spot when new buttons are added (like keys on a keyboard, AAC use is faster if buttons stay in the same spot)
* free to use, with a cheap premium version that gives some extra options (such as getting data on usage patterns)
* a search function so you can find a word you've forgotten the location of - it highlights the path for you
* really nice & helpful support staff who answer questions & fix bugs very promptly
* the AAC board is stored on the Cloud and can be accessed from any device with a web browser
* has an inflections sidebar so you can do 'go' + 'ing' instead of needing a separate button for 'going'
* has a keyboard in case whatever you want to say isn't there already

I tried out pretty much every free or trial version Android AAC app before getting this one. Now, I know exactly which AAC app I'll be using for my kid.

i use this https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... tant&hl=en its free and it works for me when i need it

Thanks for the replies, everyone. There's a lot of AAC speech apps out there now. It looks like I'll be going with a super app called Talk Tablet. The AAC specialist will help me program it and start training me in it. I will have to diligently use it regularly, every day. The AAC specialist says that when I am out in the community and get dysregulated, I'll need to be really quite familiar with the app. So, daily practice will be necessary. I am determined to succeed at using this AAC app!

Recently started using 'Speak My Mind', it's predictive AAC for iPad & iPhone. So far, very pleased with it.

I've found all of those text-to-speech things horrid.
At the moment I'm just using "Embiggen," but it's not perfect. It isn't a speech thing - just allows you to type and make that easier for people to read.
I'd like a better app, but they seem VERY simplistic - "I want to go to bed," "I want food," etc. They also seem to lack niche stuff - if you're communicating on a topic that includes atypical words and terms.
Would be awesome if there were more responses in this topic on people's experiences with different apps for people still looking for one that suits them!
I can hardly speak at all at the moment and it's been over a week. A better option would be welcome.

I rarely use aac. Don't like it. I communicate the same way verbal people do; I text back and forth with them.