Lend or claim a communicator

A hand-off is how a communicator moves from the person who built it to the family who uses it. A pro — an SLP, teacher, or therapist — sets up the communicator with boards, a voice, and settings, then sends a link. The family claims it, and from that moment it lives on their own account.

This page covers both sides: claiming one that's been handed to you, and lending one out.

What a hand-off is

Setting up a communicator well takes time — picking boards, choosing a voice, getting the layout right. A hand-off means the family doesn't have to redo any of that.

The pro builds the communicator on their account, marks it as a loaner, and shares a claim link. When the family opens that link and claims it, ownership transfers to them. Everything comes along: the boards, the voice, the display settings, the username. Nothing is rebuilt and nothing is lost. The one thing that changes is the passcode — see below.

The pro's slot goes back into their pool at the same time, so they can set up the next family.

If you're a family: claiming one

You'll get a claim link from the pro — by email or however they share it. Open it and you'll land on a page that says "Make [name]'s communicator yours."

1. Create an account, or sign in. If you don't have a SpeakAnyWay account yet, you can make a free one right on that page. If you already have one, switch to sign-in.
2. Claim it. One button. The communicator moves onto your account, and Open [name]'s communicator takes you straight to it.

What you get: the communicator exactly as it is today — its boards, its voice, its settings, and its username. You're the owner now, so you can rename it, swap boards, change the voice, or edit anything else.

A fresh passcode. Claiming gives the communicator a new passcode, so only your family can sign in from now on. Any device that was signed in as the communicator during the loan is signed out — sign it back in with the new passcode, which you'll find on the communicator's Account tab.

Where the boards live — the part that surprises people. The boards that came with the communicator stay on the communicator, not on your own Boards page. Open the communicator from your dashboard and they're all there. They're still credited to the pro who made them, which is deliberate: it means they don't use up any of your plan's board slots. So a Free account that claims a communicator full of boards still has its own board slot free and its Boards page will look empty until you make something yourself. That's expected — nothing is missing.

A Free account can hold exactly one. That's the whole point of the slot: a Free account can't create its own sign-in communicator, but it can hold one that was handed to it. (Free also includes one sandbox communicator, which has no sign-in — see Plans and slot limits.)

What the pro can see afterward. They don't own it anymore — you do. They stay on the communicator's team as a supervisor, which is deliberate: it's how they keep helping with boards after the hand-off, without you having to set anything up. You're the team's owner and admin, so if you'd rather they didn't have access, you can remove them from the team at any time.

If the link doesn't work:

• "This claim link has expired." Ask the pro to lend it again — that mints a fresh link.
• "This communicator has already been claimed." If that was you, just sign in. If it wasn't, check with the pro before going further.
• A message about your plan limit. Your claim slot is already in use. Free accounts hold one claimed communicator; a paid plan holds more. Note this is the communicator slot, not the board limit — claiming never uses a board slot.

If you're a pro: lending one

Lending is available on Pro and on the free Clinician plan, and only the communicator's owner sees the controls. Open the communicator and look for the Lend & Hand-off panel — it shows how many slots you're using and how many are free.

From a sandbox. A sandbox has no sign-in, so it's the natural place to plan boards before a family is ready. Click Lend to a family and it becomes a full communicator with its own passcode, and a claim link appears.

From a communicator you already own. You can lend that too — and it keeps its passcode while it's on loan, so a student signed in on a school iPad stays signed in. The passcode changes when the family claims it.

On the free Clinician plan, Set up a student creates a full communicator with a passcode, so a clinician's hand-off usually starts here rather than from a sandbox.

Share the claim link. Copy it, or send it straight to the family's email address from the same panel.

Slots. A loaner counts against your slots the whole time it's out. When the family claims it, ownership transfers and the slot returns to your pool. If a loan isn't going anywhere, End loan takes it back immediately — the family loses access, the communicator drops back to a sandbox with its boards intact, and the slot is free again.

For the full slot math — how many each plan includes, and what happens when you run out — see Plans and slot limits.

Why Free shows "1 claimed from a pro"

On the Plan & credits page, a Free account's communicator count reads 1 claimed from a pro. It's worded that way because the slot only fills one way.

A Free account can't create its own sign-in communicator — every communicator you make yourself is a no-sign-in sandbox. But a Free account can hold one that was handed to it by a pro. That's the slot the line is describing.

So if a therapist or teacher sends you a claim link, a free account is genuinely enough to receive it and use it day to day. If you want to set up sign-in communicators yourself, that's what the paid plans are for.

Common questions

• Do I have to pay to claim a communicator? No. A free account can claim one, and it keeps working.
• Does the pro lose their copy? They lose ownership, not the work. The boards go with the communicator to the family, and the pro's slot frees up so they can set up someone else. The pro stays on the communicator's team as a supervisor so they can keep helping, and the family can change that.
• Can a pro lend the same communicator again later? Not once it's been claimed — it belongs to the family then. A pro can lend a different communicator, or set up a new one.
• What if I claimed it with the wrong account? Email hello@speakanyway.com from the account that claimed it and tell us which account should have it — we'll help sort it out. The pro can't undo a claim from their side.
• How many can I lend at once? Lending is on Pro and the free Clinician plan. Each communicator you lend uses a slot until the family claims it, then the slot comes back. Pro has 5 (and you can add more); Clinician has 2. See Plans and slot limits.