Comparison

VHToolkit Mobile vs Lochan

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

Head to head
About

VHToolkit Mobile

Engage in real-time conversations with AI-powered virtual humans. This application allows for multilingual voice interactions and explores the architecture of a virtual human toolkit. It's designed for those interested in conversational AI and virtual human technologies.

Highlights
  • AI-powered virtual human interaction
  • Real-time conversations
  • Multilingual voice support
  • VHToolkit architecture exploration
  • Conversational AI technology
Features
Read full description

VHToolkit Mobile enables you to converse with a library of AI-driven characters, discussing the VHToolkit and its creator, the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies (USC ICT). Features include: - Interact with AI-powered virtual humans in real time - Experience multilingual voice interactions - Explore the flexibility of the VHToolkit architecture The app is intended for researchers, developers, educators, and organizations interested in conversational AI and virtual human technologies.

About

Lochan

Features
Read full description

Your coding agents keep working when you step away. Lochan is how you keep up with them, calmly. When Claude Code, Codex or any other agent on your computer stops to ask a question, open its real terminal on your phone, read what it did, and answer. Then get back to your walk. A CALM VIEW OF A BUSY HERD Every agent on the machine at a glance, with a line on where each one left off. The ones waiting on you always come first. - Tiles: the whole herd as a grid that moves as your agents do - Board: Blocked, Working, Done and Idle as columns you swipe through - Projects: agents grouped by the project they are working in ASK THE SHEPHERD One question, the whole herd. The Shepherd is an agent on your computer that reads every other pane. Ask it what needs you, what changed or whether anything is stuck, and it answers from what is on the screens, with a link to each pane it mentions. It runs Claude Code by default, or Codex, Pi, OpenCode or Grok. ANY AGENT CAN JOIN THE HERD Lochan does not plug into your agent. It opens the terminal the agent is already running in, so it works with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Grok, OpenCode, Aider and anything else with a prompt. A new agent works the day it ships. A REAL TERMINAL, IN YOUR POCKET Tap any agent for the actual session: full output, scrollback and a keyboard. MAKE THE KEYS YOUR OWN Two rows of keys sit above the terminal. Drag any key to either row, switch off the ones you never use, and add your own: - Text keys for the commands you repeat, like /compact, /usage or /model sonnet - Chord keys for Ctrl, Option and Shift combos, like your tmux prefix or Ctrl-R SHARE A SCREENSHOT WITH YOUR AGENT Pick a photo, take one of the screen in front of you, or send a file. It lands on your computer and its path goes into the prompt, ready for you to finish and send. SAY IT. CHECK IT. SEND IT. Dictate a long instruction, read the transcript, and send it only when it reads right. Or write it in a real text box, with a draft that waits if you get pulled away. RUN THE HERD FROM YOUR PHONE Start a new agent in any project, rename it, and close it when it is done. BUILT FOR A PHONE Lochan tells each agent it is being driven from a phone, so it leads with the answer, keeps replies short and batches its questions. PAIRED IN ONE SCAN Run one line on your Mac or Linux machine, then scan the code it shows. Your phone makes its own key, and it stays in the phone's Keychain. Nothing to type, no private key to copy. Save every machine you own and switch between them from the title bar. No account, and no Lochan server in between: your phone talks to your computers over SSH. Away from home you need a route to them, and Tailscale is the two-minute version. ALSO IN LOCHAN: A PRIVATE AI CHAT Chat with Apple's on-device model, open models downloaded to your phone, or cloud models with your own API key. Conversations branch instead of overwriting, and you can share one with a link we cannot read. Lochan works with Herdr, the terminal workspace for AI coding agents, on the computers you own.

Screenshots

VHToolkit Mobile4 screens
Lochan4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: VHToolkit Mobile at 15.0 against Lochan's 26.0. 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.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
VHToolkit Mobile versus Lochan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVHToolkit MobileLochan
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (6 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings6 — better—
Update frequency—Fortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size187 MB63 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperUSC Institute for Creative TechnologiesPurplecones, LLC

In-app purchases

None

VHToolkit Mobile

No in-app purchases

None

Lochan

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is VHToolkit Mobile free?
VHToolkit Mobile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lochan free?
Lochan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do VHToolkit Mobile or Lochan have ads?
Neither VHToolkit Mobile nor Lochan shows ads.

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