Absolute Board vs Seeing AI
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Absolute Board
This free drawing and handwriting app allows users to sketch and take notes with unlimited board size and color options. Save and share your ideas easily, with features like a traceable eraser, photo import, and printing capabilities.
- Unlimited board size
- Unlimited color choice
- Path traceable eraser
- Email snapshot of drawing
- Zooming and panning
- Undo/Redo functions
- Import photos
- Print snapshot
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* April 2011 - "New & Noteworthy" (Productivity) application on the American App Store * * April 2011 - "What's Hot" (Productivity) application on the American App Store * * April 2011 - "Staff Favorites" (All) application on the Korean App Store * * April 2011 - "No. 1 Free App" (Productivity) application on the Korean App Store * Best quality FREE drawing & handwriting app for iPad It's so simple & convenient - just sketch & take notes about anything in your mind. Save and share your novel ideas in the school, cafeteria, office or even on the bed. ▶ Unlimited board size ▶ Unlimited color choice for pen & background ▶ Path traceable eraser ▶ Ability to email snapshot of your drawing ▶ Zooming in/out & moving with two fingers ▶ Undo/Redo functions ▶ Import a Photo ▶ Print Snapshot (Air Print)
Seeing AI
This free app uses AI to narrate the visual world for individuals who are blind or have low vision. It describes people, text, and objects, assisting with daily tasks like reading documents, identifying products, and recognizing faces.
- 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
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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.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Seeing AI at 4.3 against Absolute Board's 3.6. Seeing AI also leads on ratings volume (632 vs 12) and device support (3 vs 1). Absolute Board's advantage is review sentiment (90% vs 69%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Seeing AI holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Seeing AI has 632 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 90% of Absolute Board's written reviews are positive against 69% of Seeing AI's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Absolute Board | Seeing AI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (12 ratings) | 4.3 (632 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.7% of reviews — better | 68.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 632 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 309 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hyeoseong Hwang | Microsoft Corporation |
Customer experience
Absolute Board
Seeing AI
Bugs and requests
Absolute Board
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Seeing AI
Reported bugs
3 issues- Barcode scanning not working consistently
- Document reader sometimes fails to load or process documents
- Frequent crashes or app becoming unresponsive
Requested features
6 requests- 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
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- Provide more customization options for voice settings
In-app purchases
Absolute Board
No in-app purchases
Seeing AI
No in-app purchases









