# Seeing AI — Talking Camera for the Blind > AI-powered talking camera app for the blind and low vision community. (iPhone/iPad app by Microsoft Corporation.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/seeing-ai/id999062298 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Microsoft Corporation](https://appshunter.io/developer/298856275) - Category: Productivity, Utilities - Price: Free - Rating: 4.30/5 from 626 App Store ratings · 204 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 15.0 · 309 MB - Languages: American English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French (France), German (Germany), Greek, Hungarian, Italian and 9 more - Released: 2017-07-12 - Data updated: 2026-08-28 - Monetization: free - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/seeing-ai/id999062298/reviews.md ## What is Seeing AI? Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed with and for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world by describing nearby people, text and objects. Seeing AI provides tools to assist with a variety of daily tasks: • Read - Hear text as soon as it appears in front of the camera. Document alignment provides audio cues to capture a printed page and recognize the text along with its original formatting. Ask Seeing AI about the contents to easily find the information you need. • Describe - Take photos to hear a rich description. Ask questions to focus on the information you care about. Explore photos by moving your finger over the screen to hear the location of different objects. • Products - Scan barcodes and Accessible QR codes using audio beeps to guide you; hear the product name and package information when available. • People - Save photos of friends and coworkers so you can recognize them later. Get an estimate of their age, gender, and expression. • Currency - Recognize currency notes. • Find My Things - Teach Seeing AI to recognize your personal objects and follow the audio cues to find them later. • World - An Audio Augmented Reality experience to explore an unfamiliar environment, including hearing objects announced around you with Spatial Audio (requires a device with a LiDAR, and iOS 14+). • Colors - Identify colors. • Light - Hear an audible tone corresponding to the brightness of your surroundings. • Photos and Videos in other apps - Just tap “Share” and “Recognize with Seeing AI” to describe media from Mail, Photos, WhatsApp, and more. • Browse Photos - Hear descriptions of photos and videos saved on your device. Seeing AI continues to evolve as we hear from the community, and AI research advances. Visit http://SeeingAI.com for more details. Questions, feedback or feature requests? Email us at SeeingAI@Microsoft.com. ## Key features - Read text and documents - Describe photos and objects - Scan product barcodes - Recognize people and currency - Identify personal objects - Augmented reality environment exploration - Identify colors and light levels ## What do users think of Seeing AI? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Helpful for visually impaired users - 🚀 Accurate text and document recognition - 🚀 Useful for reading labels, mail, and other text - 👍 Comprehensive set of features in one app - 👍 Life-changing for some users - 👍 Appreciated that the app is free **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes or becomes unusable after updates - 🐛 Inconsistent performance in scanning barcodes and recognizing colors - 🐛 Facial recognition not very accurate - 🔒 Privacy concerns with facial recognition - 👎 Difficult to navigate for blind users due to small buttons **Commonly reported bugs** - Barcode scanning not working consistently - Document reader sometimes fails to load or process documents - Frequent crashes or app becoming unresponsive **Most requested features** - Add support for more languages, including Arabic and Chinese - Improve accuracy of color and facial recognition - Allow users to read digital displays like clocks and appliances - Integrate with screen readers like VoiceOver for better accessibility - Add an offline mode for using the app without an internet connection - Provide more customization options for voice settings ## Recent user reviews (10 of 204) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/seeing-ai/id999062298/reviews.md ### 5/5 — Incredible impact *2026-03-19, version 5.6.1* I am totally blind. Seeing AI has had such an impact on my life. Know when a letter arrives, I can just reach from my phone and I can read through my glasses without having to wait for a relative to come. Also describing photograph is amazing. I can share the experience through photographs sent by my friends. An incredible impact on my life, thank you ### 2/5 — Social *2025-12-10, version 5.6.1* This late night I’ve been using this AI to read for me, but when I’m reading with it, I can notice it’s saying wrong words and going off track. ### 4/5 — Great app but… *2025-12-01, version 5.6.1* I work for an Assistive Technology Program. We recommend this app to many with vision deficiencies and it’s great. However, the app continues to change with updates. I was initially told this is supposed to be for those who are visually impaired but for those that cannot see, the changes make this difficult to use. When I first learned of the app, it was very simple to use but has had so many changes since that I can no longer say that. This needs to stay simple & refrain from changing so much. I don’t see how anyone with visual impairments can use it. The scan/read feature used to allow jumping around but it no longer works that way. The layout of the options have changed so much that it’s difficult to use for those that are unable to see what they are doing. ### 5/5 — It’s great, but I have suggestions *2025-11-23, version 5.6.1* Hey y’all this is what’s up so I think because I think we all know how Google has a thing where you could just take a picture of the answers like you could take a picture of your homework and get the answers. I think you should put that on there like it should be called homework helper because do you know how many blind kids like me blind 14-year-olds like me who tried to use Google lens and take a picture of the homework and get quotes sorry something wrong. Do you know how many a lot so therefore please do that please please do that. But that’s that suggestion thank you for this app and keep making more apps. Oh and fix Outlook. ### 5/5 — I love this app *2025-11-06, version 5.6.1* Chrisk.clk.eth loves you ### 1/5 — Terrible *2025-09-19, version 5.6.1* Don’t have a read feature if its not going to read the correct thing! Why is there no option to read the words that are in a specific area! Why does it only read irrelevant stuff and not the information required???? Useless! If you’re actually blind it’s utterly terrible! ### 3/5 — The most exciting app *2025-09-07, version 5.6.1* I didn’t think one app has four blinds and tell me for reading paper or currency and more ### 1/5 — Error try again *2025-08-24, version 5.6* The program doesn’t work at all. ### 5/5 — Life changing app for people with blindness or low vision *2025-08-12, version 5.6* This app is incredible for people who are blind or have difficulty reading text. I have had it for several years and it is a life changer, really important for maintaining independence with vision loss ### 1/5 — Used to work great now it doesn’t work at all *2025-07-11, version 5.5.1* When I first started using this app to read print books because I couldn’t get the information online it would read 25 pages at a time reliably Now I’m lucky if I can get three pages out of it before it stops, scanning my book it’s impossible for me to read with this app anymore because I can’t comprehend a book if I can only read three pages every five minutes whatever improvements you think you’ve made with this app please reverse them. I need to use this and I can’t and it’s ridiculous. ## Frequently asked questions about Seeing AI ### What does Seeing AI do? Seeing AI is a free application designed for individuals who are blind or have low vision. It utilizes artificial intelligence to narrate the surrounding environment, describing people, text, and objects. The app provides various tools to assist with daily tasks, such as reading documents, identifying products, and recognizing faces. ### What are the key features of Seeing AI? Key features include the ability to read text from documents and signs, describe the content of photos, scan product barcodes, recognize people and currency, identify personal objects, and explore environments using audio augmented reality. It can also identify colors and light levels. ### Is Seeing AI free to use? Yes, Seeing AI is a completely free application. It does not have any in-app purchases or advertisements, making it accessible to all users without cost. ### What devices is Seeing AI compatible with? Seeing AI is an iOS application. Some features, like the World feature with Spatial Audio, require a device with a LiDAR scanner and iOS 14 or later. Other features are available on a wider range of iOS devices. ### How can Seeing AI help with everyday tasks? Seeing AI can assist with numerous daily tasks. It can read mail, identify groceries by scanning barcodes, help recognize friends and colleagues by saving their photos, and even teach you to find frequently misplaced items like keys. The app aims to make the visual world more accessible. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 5.6.1 — 2025-09-04 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. ### 5.6 — 2025-07-30 • You can now review recently taken photos and their descriptions. Select "History" in the menu. • Updated the main screen layout based on your feedback. • Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. ### 5.5.1 — 2025-03-21 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. ### 5.5 — 2025-02-03 • We have updated the Seeing AI interface to make it faster to access the features you use the most. • The app is split into three tabs: • Read: Provides tools for reading, combining the functionality of the previous Short Text, Document, and Handwriting channels. • Describe: Provides rich descriptions of your surroundings, or photos already on your phone. This combines the functionality of the previous Scene and Person channels. • More: Provides access to all the other task-specific channels. • Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. ### 5.4 — 2024-10-31 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. Recent improvements include: • Seeing AI can now describe videos! Select "Browse Photos" from the menu, or share an MP4 file with Seeing AI, and hear it described, scene-by-scene. • You can now recognize PDF documents with Seeing AI. • After tapping "More Info" to get a rich description of an image, you can now ask questions on the same screen. • Reduced the amount of time it takes to get a rich description, or answers to your questions. • Reduced the amount of time it takes to get a rich description. • When using a large accessibility font size, press and hold on toolbar items to see a large content preview. • On the Product channel, both barcodes and Enhanced QR codes can now be recognized at the same time. • Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. ## More apps by Microsoft Corporation - [Viva Engage](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/viva-engage/id289559439) - [Microsoft Bing Search](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/microsoft-bing-search/id345323231) - [Microsoft OneNote](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/microsoft-onenote/id410395246) - [Microsoft OneDrive](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/microsoft-onedrive/id477537958) - [Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPad](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-ipad/id484222449) - [Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPhone](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/microsoft-lync-2010-for-iphone/id484293461) All apps by Microsoft Corporation: https://appshunter.io/developer/298856275 ## Related topics [seeing ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/seeing-ai) · [microsoft seeing ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/microsoft-seeing-ai) · [seeing eye](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/seeing-eye) · [seing ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/seing-ai) · [low vision](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/low-vision) · [seen ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/seen-ai) · [seeing](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/seeing) · [blindsquare](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/blindsquare) · [hadley helps](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/hadley-helps) · [orcam](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/orcam) · [taptapsee](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/taptapsee) · [zadar a11y](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/zadar-a11y) · [the seeing eye advocacy](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/the-seeing-eye-advocacy) · [pharo previewer](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/pharo-previewer) · [accessibility techniques](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/accessibility-techniques) · [hgv blind spots awareness vr](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/hgv-blind-spots-awareness-vr) · [artea lizingas](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/artea-lizingas) · [envision ai](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/envision-ai) · [werecognize](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/werecognize) · [luas vi](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/luas-vi) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-28.*