Everything SignPrep can do

SignPrep is a free companion app for sign language interpreters. It brings assignment preparation, live timing, reflection, CPD, glossary building, and self-care into one private Apple experience.

SignPrep has no ads, subscriptions, or in-app purchases. AI features use Apple Foundation Models on supported devices. Processing may happen on your device or, for more advanced requests on iOS 27 and compatible releases, through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute. SignPrep operates no AI servers and cannot remotely access your requests or results.

Version 1.5.2 reorganises preparation into one workspace, so this page follows the same journey: what helps you before an assignment, during it, after it, and across the whole workflow.

• Works on: iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch
• Requires: iOS 26, iPadOS 26, or watchOS 26 or later
• Price: Free — no ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases

Onboarding in v1.5.2 is a short activation flow, not a feature tour. It helps you set up the app your way and experience the before–during–after workflow:

• Choose how assignments enter SignPrep — import from Calendar or add them manually. Both are first-class routes, and calendar access is never required
• If you choose Calendar, SignPrep explains why access is useful before iOS asks, then lets you pick exactly which calendars to use
• Notification permission is only requested when there's a concrete upcoming assignment to remind you about
• A Privacy & Defaults step to review notification and Live Activity title sharing, Minimise Sensitive Details, optional App Lock, Calendar Notes (off by default), and Apple Intelligence availability
• Your name for personalised greetings, your preferred sign language auto-detected from your region, and CPD tracking defaults
• An optional guided demo of preparation, Live Session, Ambient Mode, and reflection using a fictional “Community Workshop” assignment — the demo runs in memory only and never saves assignments, generates real AI content, or requests permissions

You can skip most steps and grant permissions later. Existing users aren't forced through onboarding after updating — replay it any time with View Onboarding Again in Settings; replaying never changes your settings or data.

Calendar sync

• Imports events from the calendars you choose (read-only — SignPrep never writes to your calendars)
• Sync range: the next 7, 14, or 30 days
• Optional past assignment sync: 2 weeks, 1 month, or 3 months back
• Past assignments are automatically marked complete on import
• AI automatically tags each event with a domain (Medical, Legal, Education, and more)
• Pull down on the list to force a fresh sync
• Deduplicates ongoing assignments that span past and future date ranges
• Your reflections, notes, checklists, CPD links, AI briefings, and research summaries are preserved across every sync — only the calendar metadata refreshes

Add your own assignments

• Create jobs that aren't on your calendar, right from the Assignments tab
• Calendar-style editor with 5-minute increment pickers
• Start defaults to the next round five minutes; end defaults to two hours later
• When you change the start time, the end shifts by the same amount — your duration is preserved automatically
• Manual assignments live alongside imported ones but are never touched by a calendar re-sync
• Instantly sync to your Apple Watch on create, edit, or delete

Event title filter

• Include only events that contain certain words, or exclude events that do
• One or more comma-separated phrases
• Configurable in Settings › Event Filter

Assignment list

• Grouped into Today, Tomorrow, and Upcoming, plus a Completed section
• Each row shows the title, domain chip, full date, time range, and a live countdown pill
• Personalised greeting at the top with a smart subtitle that changes based on how soon your next assignment is
• Monthly Insights card under the greeting
• Swipe to ignore, or pick many at once and ignore in bulk
• Ignored events have their own view where you can un-ignore them any time
• Dedicated “All Assignments” view with sorting, filtering, and batch selection

AI Briefing

Every assignment has a Briefing card in Assignment Detail. Generate a short, privacy-preserving AI Briefing for any upcoming or ongoing assignment — a focused orientation to the subject with terms worth reviewing, no logistics or filler. Apple Foundation Models may process the request on your device or, for more advanced processing, through Private Cloud Compute. Tap Regenerate for a fresh take. Briefings are saved per assignment and survive app updates, cold launches, and calendar re-syncs. Completed assignments keep their saved Briefing as read-only history, and if Apple Intelligence is off, the card stays visible and points you to Settings instead of quietly disappearing.

Assignment detail

• Live countdown pill with status colour
• Duration, date with day of the week, and source line (“Imported from <calendar>” or “Manually created”)
• Briefing card — generate, review, or regenerate an AI Briefing for any upcoming or ongoing assignment
• Location with name, address, one-tap copy, estimated travel time, and directions in Apple Maps or Google Maps
• Prepare for this Assignment (“Checklist, Research, Notes and more”) — one full-width row that opens the Preparation workspace
• Checklist progress at a glance, with editing kept in Preparation so the same checklist never lives in two places
• Assignment notes that grow with content, plus a clear-with-confirmation and share button
• Live Session card when the assignment starts within the next hour or is ongoing
• “Write a Reflection” button after the assignment finishes
• Mark complete / incomplete / “I'm on my way” for directions
• Manual assignments have Edit and Delete in the toolbar

Notifications

• Pre-assignment reminder 15 minutes before the start
• Reflection reminder after the assignment ends — configurable to 15 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, or tonight at 8 pm
• CPD renewal reminders (quarterly if you're behind pace, plus inside 30 days of your deadline)
• Tapping a reminder deep-links to the right screen
• Each reminder type has its own toggle in Settings

New in v1.5.2, Preparation is the single home for deeper assignment preparation. Tap Prepare for this Assignment in Assignment Detail to open it. The top of the workspace orients you with the assignment title, date, domain, and checklist progress — then you open only the tools you need.

Checklist

• The only full checklist editor for an assignment — no more duplicate checklists in two places
• Compact rows with clear dividers and accessible touch targets
• Add, complete, delete, and reorder items
• Templates and AI-supported suggestions are there when you want them — you always control the final list

Research and reviewed web search

• Research the assignment topic without leaving the workspace, and add useful findings to your notes
• Search the Web builds a general query on your device, checks it for likely identifying details, and shows it to you — you review, edit, and approve the query before anything is searched
• A query that still appears to contain protected information is blocked

Key Terms

• Suggested words and phrases worth preparing, plus recent terms for the assignment domain
• Add terms for review and connect them to your Sign Glossary — assignment prep feeds your long-term sign library

Add More Context for AI

• One place for the context that improves AI preparation: your role and contextual information, your own additional AI context, and imported Calendar Notes (read-only, when enabled)
• Your own context and imported Calendar Notes stay separate — imported notes never overwrite what you wrote
• Controls show what may be included, and the interface tells you when AI input includes Calendar Notes

Resources

• Keep assignment-specific links and reference material together — add, open, and remove them while you prepare

Preparation history

Completed assignments keep their preparation in read-only form — checklist state, notes, research, context, and any saved Briefing stay reviewable, which supports reflection and professional learning without rewriting the historical record. Marking an assignment incomplete restores editing where appropriate.

If your work calendar already contains useful assignment details — topic, audience, format, preparation instructions — SignPrep can optionally bring those notes into Preparation and include them in Apple Intelligence context when you allow it.

• Off by default. Turn on Use Calendar Notes for Preparation in Settings — existing assignments are never silently opted in
• Imported notes appear in Preparation as read-only source information, shown separately from your own notes — you can copy the text, and SignPrep never edits your calendar events
• Per-assignment control: each imported assignment can inherit the global setting, or explicitly include or exclude its notes from AI context
• A successful calendar sync keeps imported notes up to date; if calendar access is off or a fetch fails, previously imported notes are preserved
• Manual assignments are unaffected — the feature only applies to calendar-imported assignments

Privacy boundaries: Calendar Notes never appear in widgets, notifications, Live Activities, Apple Watch surfaces, Spotlight, Siri, exports, logs, or analytics. They may inform AI preparation only when you permit it. Apple Foundation Models may process that request on your device or through Private Cloud Compute; SignPrep cannot remotely access the request or result.

Live Session is contextual: the card appears in Assignment Detail when the assignment starts within the next hour or is ongoing, then steps out of the way once the assignment ends. If an event has no valid end time, SignPrep uses a bounded one-hour fallback rather than leaving live tools open indefinitely — less clutter while you prepare, and live tools right there when they become useful.

Ongoing Assignment is the live-session page designed to stay open while you work. It keeps timing, active interpreter, and assignment progress together in one focused interface.

When an assignment is active, the page is shown as Ongoing Assignment. When used without an attached assignment, the same live-session tools are shown as Swap Timer.

Swap Timer supports structured interpreter rotation. Set an interval and warning time, then let SignPrep cycle through Running, Swap Soon, and Swap Now states.

Swap Timer includes:

• A/B interpreter roles
• Large countdown ring
• Last and next swap information
• Haptic and optional audio cues
• Ambient view for live assignments
• Controls from the app, Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, Apple Watch, Siri, and shortcuts where available

Swap Clock supports flexible turn-taking based on real clock time. It shows the current time, elapsed time since the last swap, and clock-based segments for Interpreter A and Interpreter B.

Use Swap Clock when a fixed interval does not fit the assignment, but you still want a clear record of who has been active and when the last swap happened.

Ambient Mode is made to be set down. Rest the phone nearby during an assignment and read the swap timer at a glance — large text keeps the timing legible from a distance, and the colours pulse when it is time to swap, so you never have to reach for the screen mid-assignment.

The full-screen view shows large timing information, A/B interpreter roles, and assignment progress. Controls are kept intentionally minimal: swap actions remain available, while setup and end controls stay in the standard Live Session view.

Home Screen

• Upcoming Assignments (small, medium, large) — next assignments with countdown, greeting, and motivational message
• CPD Progress (small, medium) — ring showing hours vs. target with renewal countdown
• New Sign, Reflect, Log CPD (small) — one-tap shortcuts
• Every assignment row deep-links to its detail view

Lock Screen

• Next Assignment (circular gauge, rectangular, or inline)
• Quick Actions (rectangular or inline) — New Sign and Reflect side by side
• CPD Circular — gauge with hours logged and renewal countdown

Calendar Notes never appear on widgets. When App Lock is engaged, widgets use generic assignment titles and omit location details.

During assignments

A Live Activity appears 15 minutes before an assignment and stays up throughout:

• Title, domain chip, and location
• Hours-and-minutes countdown in the top-right
• Circular progress ring filling from start to end time
• “Log Reflection” button when the assignment is marked complete
• Dynamic Island compact, expanded, and minimal views
• Dismisses cleanly when the assignment ends

During swap cycles

The Swap Timer has its own Live Activity:

• Large countdown, phase status, interpreter dots, and swap count
• Four interactive buttons — Swap, Restart, Pause, and Stop
• Phase colours shift as the swap approaches

Prefer generic wording on the Lock Screen? Turn off Show Assignment Title in Live Activity and SignPrep shows “Assignment” instead of the real title — on the Lock Screen, Dynamic Island, and Watch Smart Stack. Calendar Notes never appear in Live Activities.

• New Sign — opens the new glossary entry form
• Log Reflection — opens a new reflection
• Next Assignment — shows the title and countdown; tap to open
• Log CPD — opens the new CPD entry form (hidden when CPD is off)

• Your full assignment list on your wrist, with tap-through detail
• Start, pause, resume, and stop the swap timer from either device — everything stays in sync
• Wheel pickers for swap interval and warning time, with a large always-visible Start button
• Pull down on the list to refresh from your iPhone
• Manual assignments push to the watch instantly
• Four complication families — circular, corner, rectangular, and inline — with a live countdown to your next assignment
• CPD complication shows hours logged and renewal countdown
• Smart Stack cards surface assignments an hour before they start, with time- and location-based relevance
• A dedicated Swap Timer Smart Stack card appears 15 minutes before an assignment through 30 minutes after

Version 1.5.2 refines Watch announcements and reliability. When App Lock is engaged, assignment data on the Watch uses generic titles without location details — and Calendar Notes are never sent to the Watch.

Ten featured shortcuts, plus voice control across the app:

• What's my next assignment?
• What's my day like?
• Assignment Countdown
• Get Directions
• Sync My Calendar
• What's my swap timer status?
• Start, pause, resume, or stop the Swap Timer
• Add a New Sign
• Log a Reflection
• Log CPD

Every shortcut also appears in the Shortcuts app, so you can wire them into your own automations.

When App Lock is engaged, selected information intents reply with “SignPrep is locked. Open the app and unlock it to see this.” instead of assignment details.

Write a DC-S reflection

Reflections follow the Demand-Control Schema by Dean & Pollard:

• Single scrollable page, guided step by step
• Optional link to a past or upcoming assignment
• Assignment Type domain dropdown (hidden when you've linked a reflection to an assignment — the domain comes from there)
• Free-text fields for environmental, interpersonal, paralinguistic, and intrapersonal demands
• Controls, consequences, and “what to keep / what to change next time”
• Flag for mentor discussion, with a helper tip about exporting as PDF
• Self-care check-in with three load levels — physical, emotional, and cognitive — displayed as colour-coded pills
• AI “Suggest” button on every demand and control field for context-aware phrases

Practice identifying demands

An interactive DC-S quiz tests your ability to categorise demands in real interpreting scenarios.

Browse your reflections

• Chronological list with colour-coded load level dots
• Stats card with totals, this-month count, and flagged entries
• Weekly reflection streak with current and longest streak
• Weekly mood strip showing daily average load
• Personalised insights that surface patterns across mood, reflections, and assignments
• Prompt to reflect on your most recent un-reflected assignment
• DC-S quick reference card
• Batch selection and swipe actions

After you save

• Personalised encouragement message
• High-load alert if your last three reflections show sustained load
• One-tap Log CPD to capture the assignment's hours
• Quick links to breathing exercises, stretches, or the Self-Care tab

Export

• Single reflection as PDF
• All reflections as PDF or CSV, with a date range picker for both
• Every export offers two modes — Full includes the assignment title and your written fields and is flagged as potentially identifying; Anonymised uses a generic title and applies local likely-identifier redaction before the file is created
• SignPrep never uploads an exported file by itself — you decide what to do with it

Daily mood check-in

Five-level mood logging (Great, Good, Okay, Low, Tough) with haptic feedback and a context-sensitive self-care tip after each log.

AI “For You” suggestions

A personalised self-care suggestion based on your recent reflection history — load levels, patterns, and self-care actions. Tap Regenerate for a fresh take. Hidden on devices without Apple Intelligence, and replaced with a friendly enable prompt if you've turned AI off.

Trends

• Month-over-month mood trend indicator
• Average mood score compared with the previous month
• Interactive mood-over-time chart for spotting patterns

Guided exercises

• 4-4-6 Breathing — an animated breathing exercise with four cycles, pause/restart controls, and a countdown
• Interpreter Stretches — six guided stretches targeting common tension areas: neck rolls, shoulder shrugs, wrist circles, finger spreads, side stretch, and forward fold

Resources for interpreters

• Self-care articles and guides covering supervision, debriefing, vicarious trauma, boundary-setting, physical wellness, and more
• Curated external links to wellness resources from the interpreting community
• Region-specific support links based on your sign language

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development — the ongoing learning interpreters log to keep their certification current. In the US it is usually counted as CEUs (Continuing Education Units), for example through RID. SignPrep lets you log your hours, see your progress, and export your record, whether your body counts CPD hours or CEUs.

Country-aware defaults

Log hours

• Activity type (workshop, self-study, mentoring, community, assignment, and more), date, hours, title, and notes
• After saving a reflection, a one-tap Log CPD button preloads the assignment's hours
• Also log from the CPD Home Screen widget, Control Centre control, or Siri shortcut

Progress and renewal alerts

• Dashboard card with a renewal pill — amber inside 30 days, green once you hit your target
• iOS and watchOS widgets surface renewal countdown
• Quarterly reminder if you're behind pace, plus a 30-day deadline alert

Export your CPD record

• Polished PDF for submission to your certifying body
• CSV for your own tracker or spreadsheet
• Date range filtering so you can export a single renewal period

Turn CPD off entirely

If CPD isn't part of your practice, a single toggle in Settings hides the CPD tab row, dashboard card, every Log CPD button, both iOS and watchOS widgets, the Log CPD Siri shortcut, and the Control Centre control. Defaults on for ASL / BSL / Auslan; off for others.

Record and organise your signs

• Record video with your camera, or import from Photo Library (audio is stripped automatically for privacy)
• Save glossary videos back to your Photo Library
• Each entry has a label, description, word type, domain tag, language tag, source, and draft/confirmed status
• Replace videos on existing entries, or delete a video without deleting the entry
• Mark favourites for quick access

Find what you need

• Full-text search across labels, descriptions, and sources
• Spotlight integration — find your signs from your device's search
• Filter by domain or sign language; sort alphabetically, newest first, or most viewed
• Favourites, Most Reviewed, and Recently Added sections at the top
• Dedicated “All Entries” view with full filtering, sorting, and batch selection

Review and share

• Video player with slow-motion playback
• Share any entry as a visual card
• Export your entire glossary as a .signprep file to AirDrop, email, or save to Files
• Import .signprep or .zip files from anywhere; duplicates are skipped automatically

AI help

• Look Up Definitions — enter a label and tap a suggested definition to auto-fill description and word type
• Suggest Related Words — discover vocabulary you hadn't thought to record
• Topic Suggestions — enter a topic to get a list of relevant signs to add
• Domain Auto-Suggestion — SignPrep classifies entries as you fill them in

Regional resources

• Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) Sign Bank link appears in Glossary and Resources when SgSL is your default
• Region-specific organisation and support links surface automatically

SignPrep stores your professional data on your device and gives you layered controls over what appears beyond the app — different controls cover different scopes, so you can match the app to your setting.

On your device

• Every assignment, reflection, glossary entry, CPD entry, mood log, imported calendar note, AI-generated Briefing, security activity record, and preference is stored on your device
• No SignPrep-operated data backend — no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no third-party tracking SDKs
• AI preparation uses Apple Foundation Models on device or, for more advanced processing, through Private Cloud Compute; SignPrep cannot remotely access AI requests or results
• Calendar access is read-only; imported videos have audio stripped automatically; notifications are local
• Deleting the app permanently removes all data stored in the app

Layers you control

• Privacy Preview — see how your current settings affect Lock Screen reminders, Live Activities, Apple Intelligence input, reflection exports, and Spotlight & Siri, with live example cards for the title settings
• Title controls — choose whether assignment titles appear in notifications and Live Activities, or keep the wording generic
• App Lock — an optional SignPrep PIN with Face ID or Touch ID unlock and Auto-Lock timing (Immediately, 1 minute, or 5 minutes). With App Lock configured, SignPrep covers its content in the app switcher; while locked, widgets, Watch data, Spotlight, and selected Siri responses fall back to generic information
• Minimise Sensitive Details — on by default; for sensitive domains such as Medical, Legal, Mental Health, and Police, it helps remove likely identifiers from user-added AI context
• Reviewed web search — you see and approve the general query before any web search happens
• Full or Anonymised reflection exports — choose per export
• Exclude Data from iCloud Backups — an opt-in backup boundary. Data excluded from backups won't be restored to a new device from that backup
• Security Activity Log — a local record of app opens, locks, unlock attempts, and security-setting changes; review it and clear it whenever you choose

Read the full privacy policy for how each control is scoped.

• Full VoiceOver on every screen, widget, Live Activity, Watch view, complication, and Smart Stack card
• Meaningful labels, hints, and grouped elements on each card and list row
• VoiceOver actions (Select, Edit, Ignore, Delete) on the Actions rotor
• Dynamic Type support, with layouts that re-stack at accessibility text sizes
• System, Light, and Dark appearance with instant switching
• High-contrast colours meeting WCAG AA (4.5:1 or higher)
• Reduced Motion honoured throughout
• Bold Text support
• Large, comfortable touch targets
• Haptic feedback throughout, including on widget and Control Centre taps

AI features use Apple’s general-purpose Foundation Models. Requests may run on your device or, for more advanced processing, through Private Cloud Compute. Apple states that no one else can access your data, not even Apple; SignPrep operates no AI servers and cannot remotely access your AI requests or results. A device that supports Apple Intelligence is required. The models are not specialist knowledge bases, so treat Briefings, suggested topics, and terms as a starting point for your own preparation and always verify terminology against trusted sources.

• Privacy-preserving AI Briefings for upcoming and ongoing assignments
• Checklist suggestions, research topics, and terms to review in the Preparation workspace
• Reviewed web-search queries — you see, edit, and approve the general query before searching
• Domain auto-detection for imported events
• Glossary definitions, related words, and topic suggestions
• DC-S field suggestions in reflections
• Post-reflection encouragement messages
• Personalised monthly narrative and self-care suggestions
• Personalised greetings and motivational messages

AI suggestions may be generated on your device or through Apple’s Private Cloud Compute and may be incomplete or inaccurate. Always do your own preparation.

• Monthly totals: assignments, hours, and reflections
• CPD progress card with renewal pill
• Domain breakdown chart across all your assignments
• AI-generated monthly narrative with patterns and suggestions

Code of Professional Conduct

Interactive reference for the interpreter's Code of Professional Conduct. Seven tenets, each with a summary, a detailed explanation, and five real-world examples relevant to sign language interpreting.

Role and communication cards

Pre-loaded cards for explaining your role to hearing clients, organised by domain. Favourite the cards you use often, create your own, and display them full-screen during assignments.

External links

• Learn more about DC-S
• WASLI Code of Ethics
• RID Code of Professional Conduct
• Region-specific national interpreter association and Deaf community organisations (for example, SADeaf for SgSL users)

• Your name, for personalised greetings and insights
• Calendar selection, sync range, and past assignment range; Reset Calendar Sync button
• Use Calendar Notes for Preparation — the global Calendar Notes toggle, off by default
• Event filter mode and phrases
• Default domain and sign language
• CPD tracking: master toggle, target hours, period, renewal start date, and reminders toggle
• Glossary export and import
• Reflection export (PDF or CSV with date range picker)
• Notification toggles: reflections, pre-assignment, Live Activity, and CPD renewal
• Widgets & Controls — step-by-step instructions for adding Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen widgets, and Control Centre controls
• Apple Intelligence master toggle (with device-support status)
• Privacy & Security: Privacy Preview, notification and Live Activity title controls, Minimise Sensitive Details, App Lock with Auto-Lock timing, Security Activity Log, and Exclude Data from iCloud Backups
• Siri & Shortcuts list
• Appearance: System, Light, or Dark
• About: app icon, version, feedback, privacy policy, acknowledgements
• Reset: calendar sync, mood log, or View Onboarding Again

SignPrep organises assignments, reflections, and glossary entries across 13 domains:

Conference · Medical · Legal · Education · Mental Health · Community · Religious · Government · Corporate · VRS · VRI · Platform/Stage · Police · Other

SignPrep works for interpreters of any sign language, with automatic detection based on your region and an “Other” free-text option. Examples include:

• Singapore Sign Language (SgSL)
• American Sign Language (ASL)
• British Sign Language (BSL)
• Australian Sign Language (Auslan)
• New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL)
• Irish Sign Language (ISL)
• International Sign (IS)

Change your selection at any time in Settings. Your choice drives regional links (SgSL Sign Bank, SADeaf Website, and other organisations), CPD body defaults (RID, NRCPD, or NAATI), default target hours and renewal period, and whether CPD tracking is on by default.