Comparison

Pictello Visual Stories vs GoTalk® NOW

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pictello Visual Stories

Create engaging visual stories and social schedules with photos, videos, and text. Supports literacy development through features like word-by-word highlighting and text-to-speech. Easily share your creations with others or export them for wider distribution.

Highlights
  • Create visual stories with photos and videos
  • Text-to-speech and voice recording
  • Word-by-word text highlighting
  • Built-in word prediction
  • Import books from Tar Heel Reader
  • Share stories via server or Dropbox
  • Export to PDF or print
Read full description

Everyone loves to tell fun, engaging, and imaginative stories. Go ahead and make a social story or visual schedule for a child with autism or a slide show of holiday pictures for your friends - Pictello makes it a breeze to create and share! Whether you use the included natural-sounding Text to Speech voices, or record your own voice, Pictello is the perfect tool for visual storytelling. Each page in a Pictello story consists of a photo or video and some text, which can be read aloud by a Text to Speech voice or your own recorded audio. Develop literacy skills - Support reading with word-by-word text highlighting - Develop writing and spelling with built-in word prediction and Speak as You Type - Create stories to teach academic and social skills - Import free early literacy and adapted academic books from Tar Heel Reader Create and playback with ease - Let students use the wizard to create stories - Play stories page by page or as a slideshow - Use Text to Speech voices to read the story - Turn on switch access for story playback Integrate multimedia - Add your own photos - Include short video clips - Record your own voice or sound Share your stories - Share with other Pictello users through our free sharing server - Use Dropbox to exchange stories - Export to PDF or print to share with non-Pictello users Speak your language - Pick English, Spanish, German, French, Italian or Dutch for the user interface - Select from over 110 free Text to Speech voices in 29 languages - Use genuine American, British, Australian, American-Spanish, Swedish, French, Italian, German, Norwegian and Swedish children's voices - Create interest with fun character and specialty voices Customize to fit your needs - Pick between Wizard or Expert creation modes - Swipe or automatically turn pages - Adjust speech rate and pronunciations Read more at www.assistiveware.com/products/pictello Additional Note: Educational institutions can get a 50% discount if they purchase 20 or more licenses through Apple’s Volume Licensing Program for Education.

About

GoTalk® NOW

This powerful app provides flexible and easy-to-use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools for individuals with speech difficulties. It offers customizable page layouts, various communication styles, and rich media integration to support diverse communication needs.

Highlights
  • Adjustable page layouts
  • Customizable navigation
  • Recorded and text-to-speech capabilities
  • Standard, Express, and Scene communication pages
  • Visual Scene Displays
  • In-app image search and import
  • Video and music integration
Features
Read full description

Attainment has been making augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools for 25 years. Our experience is front and center in GoTalk NOW, a flexible, easy-to-use, yet powerful app for people who have difficulty speaking. NOW combines the simplicity of GoTalks (Attainment’s popular original AAC device) with the dynamic capabilities of an iPad. GoTalk NOW has all the essentials of an effective AAC app, like adjustable page layouts, customizable navigation, recorded and text-to-speech capabilities, and an included symbol set. But we sweated the details to create unique and compelling features that clearly separate NOW from other AAC apps. The new NOW offers three styles of communication pages: Standard, Express, and Scenes. In Standard pages, the action occurs when the location is pressed. In Express pages, recorded or text-to-speech messages build in a speech bar and play in sequence when the bar is pressed. Scene pages are built around a single photo or image. When you arrange invisible hotspots over people or objects in the photo, the hotspots play speech, music, or videos! Feel free to mix and match pages within a communication book. Create as many communication books as you need, each with unique settings and unlimited pages. Then share these books with other users via WiFi, and back them up for safekeeping via Dropbox or any Mac/PC. Envision the impact of blending video, music, and jump to actions among your pages. How cool is it to have your own private online galley to store and save your templates (up to five communication pages) for free, and to email these templates to parents and colleagues! Plus, GoTalk NOW is a full-feature scanning app! Features: • Choose 1, 2, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, or 49 locations per page. • Use Visual Scene Displays to communicate using familiar images & contexts. • Hybrid Scene Pages combine the best of both button & VSD pages. • Import images from your iPad camera, photo library, or the included Imagine Symbol set. • Search the Internet in-app for the perfect image or icon. • Purchase SymbolStix, PCS, or Widgit Symbols libraries in-app. • Crop, scale, or rotate an image using your fingers. • Combine multiple images in a single communication location. • Color pages, borders, and text with any hue. • Move and size text with your fingers so it feels just right. • Record your voice or use free, built-in text-to-speech voices. • Buy higher quality voices starting at 99 cents each, available in over 20 languages. • Add spoken labels (auditory cues) to any button. Great for scanning, guiding visually impaired users, and identifying any new or difficult vocabulary. • Trim videos in-app, and play them from any communication location. • Select our alternate video interface to pause or exit the video easily. • Link songs from your playlist to any communication location and control them with Pause/Play, Next, and Previous. • Include a core vocabulary button for extra quick access to important messages. • Create multimedia social stories and step-by-step instruction layouts by linking pages with an after action. • Share complete communication books via WiFi with any iPad user who has NOW. • Back up communication books via Dropbox or to any Mac or PC for safekeeping. • Store and share interactive templates (each including speech, video, text, and jump to links) on our online gallery for free. • Download and edit premade templates from Attainment’s collection on the public gallery, also free. • Email links to your templates to parents and colleagues, who can open the template on their iPad by tapping on the link. • Print and save communication book layouts via PDFs. • Access Now with single or two-switch scanning. GoTalk NOW participates in Apple's Volume Purchasing Program for Education in the United States. Attainment is well known for top-notch customer service. Email us with questions or comments and check our website for free webinars. And yes, we're happy to talk to you on the telephone!

Screenshots

Pictello Visual Stories4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pictello Visual Stories at $19.99 against GoTalk® NOW's $119.99. Pictello Visual Stories also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ratings volume (33 vs 2). GoTalk® NOW's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.1) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 6 months). On ads, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Pictello Visual Stories costs $19.99 and GoTalk® NOW $119.99 up front. GoTalk® NOW sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Pictello Visual Stories asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

GoTalk® NOW holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Pictello Visual Stories has 33 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 71% of Pictello Visual Stories's written reviews are positive against 61% of GoTalk® NOW's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pictello Visual Stories ships an update every 6 months, GoTalk® NOW every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and August 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Pictello Visual Stories versus GoTalk® NOW: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPictello Visual StoriesGoTalk® NOW
Price$19.99 — better$119.99
Rating4.1 (33 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews — better60.9% of reviews
Number of ratings33 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPad
Requires iOS17.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size662 MB231 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAssistiveWareAttainment Company

Customer experience

Pictello Visual Stories

All ratings33 ratings
Positive78.8%
Neutral3.0%
Negative18.2%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral6.3%
Negative22.2%

GoTalk® NOW

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews23 reviews
Positive60.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative34.8%

In-app purchases

None

Pictello Visual Stories

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

GoTalk® NOW

One-time10
  • Kenny$0.99
  • Nelly$0.99
  • Ryan$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Tracy$0.99
  • Will$0.99
  • Ella$11.99
  • Josh$11.99
  • Ready-Set-Communicate$19.99
  • SymbolStix$49.99
  • English (US) Keywords$59.99

Questions

Is Pictello Visual Stories free?
Pictello Visual Stories costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is GoTalk® NOW free?
GoTalk® NOW costs $119.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pictello Visual Stories or GoTalk® NOW?
GoTalk® NOW is rated higher. Pictello Visual Stories averages 4.1 out of 5 from 33 ratings, while GoTalk® NOW averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Pictello Visual Stories or GoTalk® NOW have ads?
Neither Pictello Visual Stories nor GoTalk® NOW shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pictello Visual Stories or GoTalk® NOW?
Pictello Visual Stories ships an update every 6 months, and GoTalk® NOW every 5 weeks. Most recently, Pictello Visual Stories was updated on September 23, 2026 and GoTalk® NOW on August 21, 2026.

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