Comparison

Pictello Visual Stories vs ConversationBuilderTeen

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

ConversationBuilderTeen

This app helps teenagers practice multi-exchange conversations in various social settings. It uses a visual format to teach conversational flow, including initiating, responding, and handling difficult topics like bullying and sarcasm. Users can record and review their conversations to improve social skills.

Highlights
  • Virtual conversation simulator
  • Multi-exchange conversations
  • Visual conversation flow
  • Handling bullying and sarcasm
  • Record and review conversations
  • 8 conversation themes
  • Group and one-on-one settings
Features
Read full description

Winner - Best Middle School App of 2012 - Best App Ever Winner - 2012 Best Teaching App by TeachHub.com Winner - 2012 4th Best Speech Therapy App by Let's Talk SLP Winner - 2012 Best Social Skills App by Tech in Special Ed Winner - 2012 Best Special Needs App by Teachers With Apps Finalist - 2012 Best Special Needs App by SmartAppsForKids ConversationBuilderTeen is a teen version of the popular and award winning ConversationBuilder virtual conversation simulator. It is designed to help teenaged children learn how to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers in a variety of social settings. The auditory pattern of conversation is presented in a visual format to help students recognize and master the flow of conversation. Students learn when it is appropriate to introduce themselves, ask questions, make observations and change the subject of the conversation. They will also learn how to recognize sarcasm and how to respond when someone is bullying them or someone around them. The student will be asked to initiate conversation, respond to conversations initiated by others or participate in group conversations. Students will be guided through conversations and allowed to record and save their conversations for later playback and study. Conversations are grouped into eight themes. The themes are school, relationship, sports, entertainment, bullying, sarcasm, clothes, and summer. Being able to converse with peers is the cornerstone of developing relationships, and ConversationBuilderTeen™ promotes development of this skill in a fun and engaging way. Features - Over 300 conversations - 8 conversation themes - School, Relationship, Sports, Entertainment, Bullying, Sarcasm, Clothes, and Summer - Visual interface to learn the pattern of conversation - Students record their half of the conversation - Group and one-on-one conversation settings - Student may import photos into the group conversations - Student can initiate or respond to conversations - Student recordings are interlaced with pre-recorded audio to create complete conversations - Real time history allows student to replay every segment of a conversation - Conversations may be archived and emailed - Parental controls to lock out some conversations LANGUAGES - English REQUIREMENTS - Compatible with iPad - Requires 5.1 software update ConversationBuilderTeen is part of "The Builder Series" of award winning education apps. Mobile Education Store has won over 40 app awards and has been named educational developer of the year in 2011 and 2012. Mobile Education Tools is a member of Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families. Recommended Ages: 10-17 Categories: Special Needs

Screenshots

Pictello Visual Stories4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pictello Visual Stories at $19.99 against ConversationBuilderTeen's $29.99. Pictello Visual Stories also leads on ratings volume (33 vs 8). ConversationBuilderTeen's advantage is review sentiment (93% vs 71%) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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 ConversationBuilderTeen $29.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.1 for Pictello Visual Stories against 4.1 for ConversationBuilderTeen. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 33 and 8 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Pictello Visual Stories's written reviews are positive against 93% of ConversationBuilderTeen's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pictello Visual Stories ships an update every 6 months, ConversationBuilderTeen every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Pictello Visual Stories versus ConversationBuilderTeen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPictello Visual StoriesConversationBuilderTeen
Price$19.99 — better$29.99
Rating4.1 (33 ratings)4.1 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews92.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings33 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 9 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPad
Requires iOS17.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size662 MB370 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperAssistiveWareMobile Education Store LLC

Customer experience

Pictello Visual Stories

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

ConversationBuilderTeen

All ratings8 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews40 reviews
Positive92.5%
Neutral5.0%
Negative2.5%

In-app purchases

None

Pictello Visual Stories

No in-app purchases

None

ConversationBuilderTeen

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pictello Visual Stories free?
Pictello Visual Stories costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is ConversationBuilderTeen free?
ConversationBuilderTeen costs $29.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pictello Visual Stories or ConversationBuilderTeen?
Pictello Visual Stories and ConversationBuilderTeen are both rated 4.1 out of 5 on the App Store, from 33 and 8 ratings respectively.
Do Pictello Visual Stories or ConversationBuilderTeen have ads?
Neither Pictello Visual Stories nor ConversationBuilderTeen shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pictello Visual Stories or ConversationBuilderTeen?
Pictello Visual Stories ships an update every 6 months, and ConversationBuilderTeen every 9 months. Most recently, Pictello Visual Stories was updated on September 23, 2026 and ConversationBuilderTeen on September 21, 2026.

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