Hands down one of the best iOS harness/inference clients.
Now this is how app development SHOULD be like. Major respect to the team, and thank you. Infinitely appreciated.
Response from developer
Thank you so much for this. This kind of message is what makes the work worth it. It means a great deal to hear that the regular updates are landing well. My goal has always been to make running AI on iOS feel simple and private, and to keep improving it with every release. I have plenty more planned, and reviews like yours are exactly what keeps the momentum going. If you ever run into something you would like to see improved or added, I would love to hear it. Thank you again for the kind words and the support.
Excellent
Response from developer
Thanks so much for the kind review, and for the five stars. I love that you use Privacy AI to see what your device can really do. That is exactly what I hoped for: a private place to try models hands-on before you pick one for your own apps. Fair point on it feeling crowded. It got that way because I wanted to fit in as much as I could. I am always working to make it easier to get around. If something ever feels buried, just let me know. Thanks again for the writing.
What’s in a name?
Response from developer
Thanks for the kind words, really glad the capabilities have impressed you! You are complete correct about the app's name. When I chose the name, I just wanted to express the idea that privacy protection is at the core of the app. But after it went live, I realized there are quite a few apps with similar names on the App Store, which makes it hard to find mine. I will admit that was a bad call on my part. Appreciate the top marks regardless. Thank you!
Very cool app
Analytics are enabled by default too, so it is requiring users to opt-out by default. These can change in the future but show the direction to begin with and are often followed by typical dev review replies with attempted justifications. Doesn’t escape the contradictory.
Solid UI.
Not a lot of justification in contrast, no thanks.
Response from developer
You are right that "Privacy AI" sets a high bar, and I want to address your points honestly rather than talk past them. On analytics: the app has no server and requires no account registration. Your conversations, your AI outputs, and your API keys never leave your device. The only third-party data collection is Google Analytics, which captures aggregate feature usage, things like which features are popular and how often certain screens are visited. It does not touch your conversations or any personal content. I acknowledge the contradiction: even aggregate analytics sits uneasily under a privacy-focused name, and I understand why that bothers you. If you prefer no data is sent at all, you can disable analytics entirely in Settings and nothing will be transmitted. If you want to go further and verify that yourself, the app has built-in proxy support for mitmproxy and Charles. You can route all traffic through either tool and audit exactly what is sent out in plain text. Or if you prefer, you can use any network traffic monitoring software you trust, such as Wireshark, to inspect the same data independently. I am comfortable saying that openly because I have nothing to hide there. On the subscription: A lifetime purchase model would pull my attention toward supporting a growing base of one-time buyers rather than building new features. The subscription keeps me focused on the things that actually make the app better for everyone using it. Thank you for the kind words on the UI. That means a lot. If you have more questions or want to dig into any of this further, feel free to reach out at customercare@acmeup.com, on Discord, or on X at @best_privacy_ai. I am happy to talk through it.
Powerful
Response from developer
Thank you so much for the kind words and the five-star review! Regarding the app size, there are two embedded models included. The first is a Qwen3.5-0.8B-INT4 model (without vision), about 500MB. It is bundled to guarantee the app works out of the box. The second is the Kokoro TTS model at around 80MB, which powers the on-device text-to-speech feature. I am considering removing the Kokoro model in a future release to reduce the app size by 80MB. The rest of the size comes from various engine libraries including llama.cpp, MLX, JavaScript, and shell, which provide the tool calls and automation capabilities. I hear you on the complexity for beginners and will keep working on making things more approachable. And deleting local models is something I plan to improve as well. Thanks again for the support!
Oh my god…
1 small BUG: I can’t seem to set the theme to “auto” mode. I’m stuck at either light or dark mode.
Response from developer
Thank you so much! This genuinely made our day! We're thrilled Privacy AI has become your go-to local LLM app, and we'll keep pushing to make the tools even better. Good news on the bug: the "Auto" theme mode fix and a new dark app icon are both coming in next version. The update is already submitted for reviewing.
Better than I expected
Only thing you have to know is that it uses up a lot of your devices resources.
Response from developer
Thank you so much for the five-star review! It really means a lot. You are absolutely right about the local resources. Local models are large files and they do take up significant storage space on your device. That is the trade-off for having full privacy and the ability to work completely offline. I am planning to add an option to offload models from iCloud Drive to local drive in a future release. This will give you more flexibility in managing your storage. Thanks again for your kind words and support!
Most viable advanced local LLM client for iPad
Right now, there still is not a clean way to import GGUF models with VLM capabilities. I have had to work around this by renaming and swapping in my own VLM models in place of the built-in ones, which is functional but clearly not ideal.
I would very much like to see mlx-audio and mflux integrated, and more broadly, for the app to give the MLX stack more latitude. If the underlying MLX library is new enough to run a model, the app should largely stay out of the way. Features should not be artificially blocked due to UI assumptions or overly rigid integration when the backend already supports them.
With faster library updates and fewer constraints at the UI layer, this could easily become the best serious local AI app on iOS.
Response from developer
Thank you so much for taking the time to write such detailed and thoughtful feedback. Reviews like yours are incredibly valuable to us and genuinely help shape our development priorities. Regarding VLM support for GGUF models, you're absolutely right that this isn't properly finished yet. We've actually dived into this issue, but the challenge is that mmproj files don't have a uniform specification and lack consistent URLs across different models. This makes it difficult to design a proper user facing workflow for customization. Additionally, we haven't received much feedback about VLM support until now, so we deprioritized it. But your feedback is exactly what we need to reconsider that decision. For the MLX stack, I want to make sure I understand your point correctly. When you say "If the underlying MLX library is new enough to run a model, the app should largely stay out of the way", could you clarify what specific limitations or UI assumptions you're experiencing? Are there particular models or features that the MLX backend supports but the app is blocking? Concrete examples would really help us understand what needs to change. Regarding mlx-audio and mflux integration: We haven't allocated time to these yet. For audio, we've already integrated sherpa-onnx for TTS and whispercpp for STT, and we weren't sure if adding mlx-audio would provide significant additional value. For mflux specifically, while it should theoretically be useful on mobile devices, our previous research showed that due to limited GPU and memory on mobile, the generated images were toy-level quality. We weren't sure if it would be valuable enough, but given your feedback, we're willing to give it a second try. If you have specific use cases or workflows where mlx-audio or mflux would be beneficial, we'd love to hear them. Please feel free to reach out to us at support@acmeup.com with more details. This kind of input directly influences our roadmap. We're committed to making this the best serious local AI app on iOS for advanced users like you, and we'll be rolling out improvements soon. Thanks again for your insights!
Literally Years Ahead of Everything Else
Now, full disclosure, the app is BRAND new, so it's a little rough around the edges. You might hit a few quirks or a random crash here and there as the developer irons things out. But honestly, that's totally expected for something this ambitious. The potential here is just off the charts.
Giving this 5 stars for the vision alone and for what it can already do.
Response from developer
Thank you for trying Privacy AI when it only had a few downloads. It means a lot that you see what we’re building, not just another chat app, but a full AI workspace and agent for mobile devices. We’re glad you tried features like broad API support and the “Super Siri” voice command. Both are designed to put you in control of your AI on your own terms. Our philosophy is simple: AI should run under users’ control, free from Big Tech lock-in, and work exactly the way users need it to. The app is still new and not perfect. But we’re shipping fast and improving every week. Thank you for the five stars and for recognizing the vision. Reviews like yours help more people discover Privacy AI and motivate us to make it even better.
