Subtext

Overview

Every conversation runs on rules nobody says out loud. Subtext writes them down — then gives autistic teens and adults somewhere to practise them, with an AI playing the other side, as many times as they want, before doing it once for real. Paste a message you can’t parse and get a three-part read: what it literally says, what it probably means, and what a reply could do.

Why it exists

At 22, structured support in the US falls off a cliff: school services end, insurance coverage evaporates, and what remains costs $100–250 an hour. The default becomes practising on real life, where every interview is a first take with income on the line. Subtext exists because that rehearsal gap is now fixable — the same AI that can hold a natural conversation can play a hiring manager at 11pm, patiently, for the twelfth time.

How it’s built

Practice mode runs on-device by default — no account, no API key, nothing leaves the browser unless you turn on live rehearsals yourself. There is no score anywhere in the product: no streak, no grade, no red X. The “never” list — no eye-contact drills, no stim policing, no normalcy grading — is enforced at the prompt level, not just in the marketing copy, and a paid autistic advisory board holds veto power over framing and feedback design.

What’s in it

Nine tools: Journeys (31 stories that pick each next step — a first job, a bowling league, a first semester), Rehearse (18 scenario packs and 67 scenes, from job interviews to tabletop games and phone calls), Decode, Energy for tracking the cost of masking, Calm Sound, 399 decode drills, Scripts, 28 field guides for loud and crowded places, and a progress feed that is a record rather than a scorecard. Reading works with no account; live rehearsal uses AI and needs a free one.