Comparison

Active Theory Experiments vs Argus

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

Head to head
About

Active Theory Experiments

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Active Theory Experiments by ActiveTheory: Unleash the future of WebGPU, WebGL, and AR/XR with immersive experiments at your fingertips. Dive into innovation with the Active Theory AR Experiments app! Explore cutting-edge augmented reality wonders and groundbreaking web experiments crafted by Active Theory. From interactive 3D environments to revolutionary web interactions, experience the limitless possibilities of modern technology.

About

Argus

This app acts as a personal knowledge search engine, indexing your iPhone data like photos, messages, and health metrics. It allows you to search, ask questions, and take action on your information using AI, with privacy-first, on-device processing.

Highlights
  • On-device AI processing
  • Hybrid keyword and semantic search
  • Natural language queries
  • AI Photo Studio for image editing
  • Health data dashboard
  • Personalized insights and memory features
  • Customizable power user tools
Features
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Argus is your personal knowledge search engine. It indexes everything you create on your iPhone — photos, messages, calendar events, reminders, notes, contacts, voice notes, web bookmarks, workouts, sleep, and visit history — and makes it all searchable, askable, and actionable from a single search bar. EVERYTHING ON-DEVICE BY DEFAULT Argus runs Apple Foundation Models on iOS 26 for AI features at no cost and no data leaving your phone. Want better answers? Bring your own Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, or any OpenAI-compatible API key. You decide which model handles text, vision, image generation, and voice — all separately. POWERFUL SEARCH • Hybrid search blends keywords, semantic embeddings, and recency • Filter by source: photos, contacts, calendar, messages, notes, more • "Photos of food," "what did I do last weekend," "10 most recent emails" — natural language understood • Geek Mode for power users: 73 commands with pipes, macros, and workflows CHAT & AGENT • Multi-turn conversations with personas, voice input, and spoken answers • Pin favorite exchanges, share as text or image, branch into alternate paths • Agent Mode lets the AI run commands on your data — search, summarize, create reminders, send messages — with your confirmation for anything destructive PHOTOS & STORIES • AI Photo Studio: generate, edit, describe, enhance, OCR, remove backgrounds, watermark • Photo Stories turn 2-10 photos into a narrated journey • Manga Mode redraws your photos as manga panels with speech bubbles • Visual Intelligence (iPhone 16 Pro+) — point your camera at anything and search your data HEALTH (NEW IN 2.0) • 8-chart dashboard: activity rings, sleep stages, HRV, resting HR, walking HR, VO2 max, steps, active energy, workouts • Workout routes plotted on Apple Maps with heart-rate zone breakdown • Mood Journal correlates sentiment with sleep and exercise • HealthKit data is read on-device only and never uploaded INSIGHTS & MEMORY • Weekly/monthly Data Insights — charts of your activity by source and topic • Time Capsule surfaces "On This Day" memories every morning • Morning Brief notifications with today's calendar, weather, health rings, and a 1-line LLM narrative POWER USER TOOLS • Custom keyboard extension with snippet expansion across every app • Quicklinks (parameterized URLs), workflows (multi-step macros), smart folders (saved searches) • Spotlight integration with interactive snippets — see top results without launching • Live Activities, widgets, AppIntents, Shortcuts, Action Button, Camera Control • iPad layout with NavigationSplitView, hardware keyboard support PRIVACY-FIRST • All ingestion happens on-device • HealthKit, Photos, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Location — read locally, indexed locally • Cloud AI is opt-in with explicit consent and BYOK • Full data export (Markdown / JSON / CSV) anytime • Tap-once delete from any item REQUIREMENTS • iOS 17+ for core features; iOS 26+ for Apple Foundation Models, Liquid Glass UI, Visual Intelligence, SpeechAnalyzer • HealthKit features require Health permissions (optional) • Cloud AI requires your own API key (optional) Argus is built by an independent developer. Feedback: in-app via Settings → Send Feedback.

Screenshots

Active Theory Experiments3 screens
Argus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Active Theory Experiments at every 3 days against Argus'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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Active Theory Experiments ships an update every 3 days, Argus every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Active Theory Experiments versus Argus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterActive Theory ExperimentsArgus
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB13 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperActive TheoryLiqun Chen

In-app purchases

None

Active Theory Experiments

No in-app purchases

None

Argus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Active Theory Experiments free?
Active Theory Experiments is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Argus free?
Argus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Active Theory Experiments or Argus have ads?
Neither Active Theory Experiments nor Argus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Active Theory Experiments or Argus?
Active Theory Experiments ships an update every 3 days, and Argus every 2 months. Most recently, Active Theory Experiments was updated on October 25, 2026 and Argus on October 24, 2026.

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