MLC Chat vs Focus Gnome
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MLC Chat
Engage in conversations with open language models directly on your iPad or iPhone. Once a model is downloaded, all interactions occur locally, ensuring privacy and offline functionality without internet access. This app is designed for non-commercial use, allowing you to run various open-source language models on your device.
- Local AI model chat
- Offline functionality
- No internet required
- Privacy-focused
- Open-source project integration
- Downloadable language models
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MLC Chat lets users chat with open language models locally on ipads and iphones. After a model is downloaded to the app, everything runs locally without server support, and it works without internet connections do not record any information. Because the models run locally, it only works for the devices with sufficient VRAM depending on the models being used. MLC Chat is part of open source project MLC LLM, with allows any language model to be deployed natively on a diverse set of hardware backends and native applications. MLC Chat is a runtime that runs different open model architectures on your phone. The app is intended for non-commercial purposes. It allows you to run open-language models downloaded from the internet. Each model can be subject to its respective licenses.
Focus Gnome
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The gnome is already sitting. Wind the dial — it runs backwards on purpose, like a kitchen timer — take three settling breaths, and begin. While you work, he meditates. Remaining time is a golden wedge that quietly shrinks; no ticking numbers to squint at. Lay the phone face down and he sinks deeper, the sounds soften, and the room gets calmer. Every sitting leaves a firefly drifting in the grove. Ending early still counts — a dimmer firefly, never a dead tree, never a broken streak, never a scolding. However long you stay counts. Nothing here is lost, and nothing is taken away. WHAT'S INSIDE • A hand-wound visual dial: 5 minutes to 2 hours, a soft click for every detent • Three settling breaths before the clock starts (skippable, and it remembers) • Face-down deepening — putting the phone away is the point, so the app rewards it • The grove: every sitting you've ever finished, drifting behind him • Name your sittings ("Thesis · 45m") and keep an honest ledger • Hand-made ambient soundscapes: hearth, rain, forest night • A choosable clock: storybook or blocky, in three inks • One notification, ever: when your sitting ends NO CATCHES No ads. No account. No subscription. No streaks you can lose. Everything stays on your phone. We built Focus Gnome for everyone who has ever been scolded by a productivity app. This is the timer that doesn't punish you for being human.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Focus Gnome at every 10 days against MLC Chat's every 2 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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.
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, Focus Gnome every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MLC Chat | Focus Gnome |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (78 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 68.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 78 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.7 GB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tianqi Chen | MATTHEW MALHAM |
Bugs and requests
MLC Chat
Reported bugs
17 issues- Phi model crashes on iOS 26.0.1 17 Pro Max
- App crashes on iPad Pro 4th Gen, iPadOs 17.7
- RedPajama model crashes app on initialization
- Update is extremely slow
- Download model button disabled in new version
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- RedPajama model crashes, custom model download removed
- App closes when hitting send on iPhone 13
- Conversation resets when app is backgrounded
- Vicuna and Mistral 7B models cause crashes
- Some 7b q4f16/q4f32 models crash on iPhone 15 Pro
- App crashes on iPhone 13 mini
- Cannot load other models from URL
- Crash on iPhone 12
- Severe heating and frequency reduction on A15
- Low VRAM failed initialization on 3GB LP DDR4X phone
- Cannot run 4bit model on iPhone 15 with 8GB RAM
- Loading models from HF MLC official Repo causes crashes
Requested features
14 requests- Ability to import custom models (from URL/Hugging Face)
- Support for more specific models (DeepSeek, Phi-2, Gemma 2B/7B, MoE Mixtral 8x7B, LLaVA)
- History of conversations
- iOS shortcuts support
- Ability to export entire responses
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- Information on VRAM requirements per phone/model
- Ability to change system message/create custom profiles
- Ability to edit responses and system prompt
- Add coffee support
- Delete downloaded models
- Change settings per model (repetition penalties, temperature)
- How-to guide for importing/recompiling LLMs
- Estimate model compatibility before download
- Support for CN and ZH languages
Focus Gnome
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
MLC Chat
No in-app purchases
Focus Gnome
No in-app purchases









