Meet Echo: an on-device AI companion for autistic users

For many autistic people, the hardest moments follow a pattern: stress builds quietly, the signs go unnoticed, and by the time anyone reacts, it's a crisis. The EchoSense Companion app is built around a different timeline — notice early, regulate gently, escalate only if truly needed.

A companion, not a chatbot

Echo is a multimodal AI (text, voice, and images) that runs entirely on the user's iPhone. It remembers what matters — special interests, sensory sensitivities, what helped last time — in encrypted on-device storage. Because everything runs locally, conversations with Echo are as private as a diary.

What's in the app

• Echo Chat — talk by text or voice, share images, get a companion that already knows your preferences.
• Vitals — Apple Watch heart rate and HRV, translated into a personal four-tier stress score: calm, elevated, stressed, crisis.
• Calm Me Down — guided breathing designed for sensory calm, one tap from anywhere.
• Stories — curated and AI-narrated calming stories with a persona picker.
• Are You Okay — a daily check-in and mood survey that builds a longitudinal picture.
• SOS — two independent emergency triggers that alert caregivers with location instantly.

Caregivers connected, users in control

A caregiver dashboard shows live status, vitals, and location — but only through consent-bounded linking that the user grants and can revoke instantly. Support and autonomy are not opposites; the architecture enforces both.