Comparison

Subtext vs TrackOSC

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Subtext

A straightforward text editor for iPhone and iPad, allowing direct creation and editing of files within iCloud. It offers advanced controls for line endings and character encoding, ideal for on-the-go code or data file modifications.

Highlights
  • Direct iCloud file editing
  • No import/export required
  • Line ending control
  • Character set encoding control
  • Quick edits for code and data
Read full description

Subtext is a simple, no-frills text editor for iPhone and iPad. Create or edit files directly on your device or in iCloud, with no need to import or export. Includes advanced features such as line ending and character set encoding control. Perfect for making quick edits to code or data files on the go!

About

TrackOSC

This app transforms your iPhone into a wireless motion-tracking camera. It streams real-time pose, face, text, and animal tracking data over your local network as OSC messages. All processing is done on-device, ensuring your video never leaves your phone.

Highlights
  • Live tracking overlays (body, hand, face, text, animals)
  • Per-detector toggles for performance
  • Front/back camera support with selfie mirror
  • Portrait/landscape orientation lock
  • Automatic OSC receiver discovery (Bonjour)
  • Hide-video mode for stage use
Features
Read full description

TrackOSC turns your iPhone into a wireless motion-tracking camera. Point it at a person and it streams live tracking data – body poses in 2D and 3D, hand poses, face landmarks, recognised text, animals, people, barcodes, outlines, the horizon and rectangles – over your local network as OSC (Open Sound Control) messages, ready for TouchDesigner, Max/MSP, Processing, openFrameworks, Pure Data, SuperCollider, Unity, or anything else that speaks OSC. All processing happens on-device with Apple's Vision framework. No video ever leaves your phone – only numbers. WHAT IT TRACKS • 2D Body: a 17-joint skeleton in pixels • 3D Body: a 17-joint skeleton in metres – real depth from a single camera, with each joint's pixel position alongside • Hand: 21 joints per hand, up to two hands • Face: the face box, head rotation and jawline contour, and Face Landmarks: the full 76-point constellation – eyes, pupils, brows, nose, lips, jaw • Text: recognised text with its bounding box • Animal: cat and dog boxes, and Animal Pose: full 25-joint cat and dog skeletons • Human: whole-body boxes that keep counting people at distances where pose estimation gives up • Barcode: QR codes and 1D/2D barcodes with position, corners, symbology and payload • Contours: every edge outline in the frame as closed polylines • Horizon: the horizon's angle and a line across the frame • Rectangles: screens, paper, doors – a box plus four corners FEATURES • Live tracking overlays on the camera view, colour-coded per detector • One chip per detector – run just what you need for the best frame rate; 3D Body runs in its own lane so it never slows the others • Front or back camera, with a natural selfie mirror (wire data is never mirrored) • Portrait and landscape, with an orientation lock for phones mounted on tripods and rigs • Automatic discovery of receivers on your network via Bonjour – or type any IP and port • Hide-video mode: tracking overlay only, on black – for stage and installation use • Free, notarised macOS companions – a Receiver with 2D and 3D views, a Recorder that records and replays the stream, a Speaker that reads it aloud, and a Router that turns it into MIDI, Shortcuts, key presses and HTTP – plus open-source receiver examples for Processing, Python, p5.js, TouchDesigner, Max/MSP, Pure Data, openFrameworks and SuperCollider, all from the project page COMPATIBILITY TrackOSC speaks exactly the same OSC wire format as VisionOSC and PoseOSC, so existing receivers and patches work unchanged. The newer detectors arrive as additional messages that older receivers simply ignore. Coordinates are in pixels, origin top-left, with the frame dimensions in every message. PRIVACY No accounts, no analytics, no ads. Camera frames are analysed on the device and discarded; tracking data is sent only to the destination you choose. TrackOSC is open source: https://github.com/JGL/TrackOSC

Screenshots

Subtext4 screens
TrackOSC1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: TrackOSC at 5.0 against Subtext's 4.5. TrackOSC also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%). Subtext's advantage is ratings volume (79 vs 2) and chart position (#94 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TrackOSC holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Subtext has 79 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Subtext's written reviews are positive against 100% of TrackOSC's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Subtext ships an update every 3 weeks, TrackOSC fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Subtext versus TrackOSC: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSubtextTrackOSC
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (79 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.2% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings79 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#94 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — betteriPhone
Requires iOS14.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCharcoal DesignJoel Lewis

Customer experience

Subtext

All ratings79 ratings
Positive84.8%
Neutral8.9%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews95 reviews
Positive83.2%
Neutral10.5%
Negative6.3%

TrackOSC

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Subtext

Reported bugs

11 issues
  • Fails to save work
  • Jumps to top of document on blank lines
  • Poor network behavior leading to data corruption
  • Cannot open or create new text files
  • Error when saving to network drive
Show 6 more
  • Cannot edit .tex files without renaming
  • Chinese input method errors
  • Random capitalization after paste
  • Large text files cause errors
  • File saving issues, creates extra copies
  • Bug when using Chinese input method with delete key

Requested features

20 requests
  • Add 'Unselect all' option
  • Add 'Replace all' function
  • Add font size settings
  • Add tab key
  • Allow editing of non-text files
Show 15 more
  • Improve network drive handling
  • Option to disable auto-save
  • Add highlighter
  • Add character count
  • Add JetBrains Mono font
  • Add 'reopen last file' option
  • Add widget support
  • Add highlighting
  • Add font and background color settings
  • Add distraction-free mode
  • Add swipe to close gesture
  • Option to release focus for collapsing skb
  • Fix Chinese input method bugs
  • Allow editing of files with arbitrary extensions
  • Add Chinese input method bug fixes

TrackOSC

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Subtext

No in-app purchases

None

TrackOSC

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Subtext free?
Subtext is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is TrackOSC free?
TrackOSC is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Subtext or TrackOSC?
TrackOSC is rated higher. Subtext averages 4.5 out of 5 from 79 ratings, while TrackOSC averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Subtext or TrackOSC have ads?
Neither Subtext nor TrackOSC shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Subtext or TrackOSC?
Subtext ships an update every 3 weeks, and TrackOSC fortnightly. Most recently, Subtext was updated on October 14, 2026 and TrackOSC on October 13, 2026.

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