Switching from Proloquo2Go or TD Snap: how to bring your boards with you

If you are thinking about moving your child to a different AAC app, there is usually one thing holding you back, and it is not the price or the features. It is the hours. The evenings spent adding buttons, arranging pages, and getting the vocabulary just right for your child. The thought of starting all of that again from scratch is exhausting, and honestly, it is the main reason families stay put even when a better option exists.

Here is the good news. You may not have to start over at all. This guide explains how to bring your boards with you when you switch, what is realistic to expect, and how Sayella imports them.

The real reason switching feels scary

Let us name the fear, because it is completely valid.

Parents and therapists describe the same heartbreak again and again: pouring hours into customising a vocabulary, then losing it. One speech and language therapist put it plainly: "Many of us... have had the experience of spending hours upon hours customizing a vocabulary set, only to lose all of that hard work when a device 'dies', or an app gets deleted off an iPad."

Even the app makers admit the old ways were painful. Speak for Yourself's own blog described the older backup method, iTunes File Sharing, as "a cumbersome, frustrating process," and warned that if the iPad "shatters, gets lost, or falls in the toilet, so does your vocabulary file."

So when you hesitate to switch, you are not being precious. You are protecting real work that is genuinely hard to recreate. The question is whether that work can travel with you. Increasingly, it can.

The key that unlocks your data: Open Board Format

There is a quiet hero in this story, and it is a file format called Open Board Format, often shortened to OBF.

Think of it like a universal plug for AAC boards. Instead of every app keeping your vocabulary in its own private, locked box, Open Board Format is a shared, open way to describe a communication board: the buttons, the words, the symbols, and how the pages link together. Because it is open, different apps can read and write it, which means your boards stop being trapped inside one app.

This matters for two big reasons.

It wins back your hours. If you can export your existing boards into an open format, you can carry them into a new app rather than rebuilding from nothing.

It protects you forever. Once your data lives in a portable format, no future price change, subscription, or company decision can hold your child's vocabulary hostage. You can always take it and go.

This is exactly why we built Open Board Format import and export into Sayella from the start. Your data is yours, and you should be able to bring it with you and take it away again, any time, with no lock-in, ever.

Importing your boards into Sayella in one click

We wanted switching to feel like a relief, not a project. So in Sayella, bringing in a board that is in Open Board Format is a one-click import. You choose the file, Sayella reads it, and your boards appear, with the buttons, words, and page links in place, ready for you to check over and use.

That is the goal we have built towards: open the file, and there is your child's vocabulary, in their new home, without an evening of retyping.

What to expect from Proloquo2Go and TD Snap

Now for the honest part, because we will not pretend switching is always perfectly seamless.

Different apps store their vocabularies in different ways, and they do not all hand over an Open Board Format file at the press of a button. Some make exporting your data straightforward. Others keep their vocabularies in their own format, which can mean an extra step to get the data into a portable form before it can be imported elsewhere.

So the practical path depends on your current app:

• If your app can export to Open Board Format, you are in the easiest position. Export the file, then use Sayella's one-click import.
• If your app uses its own format, you may need an extra conversion step to produce an Open Board Format file first. This is usually doable, and it is exactly the kind of thing we will walk you through.

Rather than over-promise here, we have put the current, app-by-app steps into our free Switcher's Guide, which we keep updated as apps change how they handle exports. If you tell us which app you are coming from, we can point you to the right route.

A calm, five-step plan for switching

Whatever app you are leaving, this gentle sequence keeps the move low-stress and low-risk.

1. Back up your current vocabulary first. Before you change anything, make a safe copy of your existing boards using your current app's backup or export. Never move without a safety net.
2. Export to Open Board Format if you can. Produce an OBF file from your current app, or follow the conversion step in our guide if your app needs one.
3. Import into Sayella. Use the one-click import, then take a few minutes to look through the boards and check everything landed where you expect.
4. Tidy and tweak. Symbols or voices may differ slightly between apps, so adjust anything that needs it. This is minutes of polishing, not hours of rebuilding.
5. Keep the old app for a short while. Do not delete your previous app the moment you switch. Run both side by side for a week or two until you are confident the new setup is solid.

Crucially, keep your child's familiar layout where you can. If learned buttons are in familiar places, your child keeps their muscle memory and the transition is far gentler. Sayella keeps learned buttons in a fixed position and never reshuffles the grid, which helps that hard-won muscle memory carry across.

Why portability is worth switching for

Bringing your boards over is the immediate win, but the deeper reason to value data portability is what it means for the future.

When your data lives in an open, exportable format, you are never locked in again. If a future app raises its price, moves to a subscription you cannot fund, or makes a change you dislike, you are free to leave and take everything with you. You are choosing an app because it is the best for your child, not because you are trapped by the cost of leaving.

That freedom is the whole point. We would rather earn your stay every day than rely on the fear of starting over to keep you.

Frequently asked questions

Will I lose my child's vocabulary if I switch? Not if your boards are in, or can be converted to, Open Board Format. That open file carries your buttons, words and page links across, so you import rather than rebuild.

Can I import directly from Proloquo2Go or TD Snap? It depends on how each app lets you export. If you can produce an Open Board Format file, Sayella imports it in one click. If your app uses its own format, there may be a conversion step first, which our Switcher's Guide walks through.

Will the symbols look exactly the same after switching? Possibly not identical, since apps use different symbol libraries. The structure, words and layout carry over, and you can adjust any symbols that need it. This is light tidying, not starting again.

Should I delete my old app straight away? No. Keep it for a week or two and run both side by side until you are confident the new setup works for your child.

Can I export out of Sayella too? Yes. Open Board Format works both ways in Sayella. You can export your boards any time, so your data is always yours to take with you.

You do not have to start over

The fear of losing all those hours is real, and it has kept many families locked into apps that no longer suit them. But your child's vocabulary does not have to be a prisoner of one app. With Open Board Format, those hours can travel with you, and once your data is portable, you are free for good.

Sayella imports Open Board Format boards in one click, keeps learned buttons in place to protect your child's muscle memory, and lets you export again any time, because your data is yours. We are in our pre-launch stage and opening early access ahead of our public launch.

Join the early-access list to be notified the moment switching is open, and download our free Switcher's Guide for the current, app-by-app steps to bring your boards across. Every voice deserves to be heard, and every voice deserves to come with you.