Comparison

Elio Chat vs Blackwall

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

Head to head
About

Elio Chat

This AI assistant operates entirely on your device, ensuring all conversations remain private and never leave your iPhone. It offers powerful AI models, image recognition, and voice input, integrating seamlessly with your iOS features like calendar and reminders.

Highlights
  • 100% offline operation
  • On-device AI processing
  • Deep iOS integration (Calendar, Reminders, Photos)
  • Powerful AI models
  • Image recognition
  • Voice input
Features
Read full description

【A Truly Private AI Assistant】 Elio is a completely private AI assistant that runs entirely on your iPhone. All processing happens on-device, meaning your conversations are never sent to the cloud. β–  Why Choose Elio? β€’ Fully Offline - Works in airplane mode β€’ Privacy First - No data ever leaves your device β€’ Works in corporate environments with AI restrictions β€’ No subscription - Free forever after download β–  Deep iOS Integration β€’ Calendar - Check and create events β€’ Reminders - Manage your tasks β€’ Photos - Analyze and search images β€’ Contacts - Search your contacts β€’ Weather - Check forecasts β€’ Location - Get current location β–  Key Features β€’ Powerful AI models (Qwen3, Llama 3.2, etc.) β€’ Image recognition (Vision-capable models) β€’ Voice input (Whisper built-in) β€’ Multi-turn conversations β€’ Search and export conversation history β–  Our Privacy Commitment Elio is your secret-keeping "second brain". Confidential information, personal concerns, work ideas... discuss anything with peace of mind. Download now and experience truly private AI.

About

Blackwall

Features
Read full description

Turn on airplane mode. Ask it a question. It answers. Blackwall runs a language model on your iPhone or iPad. Not a thin client for someone else's server β€” the actual model, loaded into your device's memory, generating each word on your hardware. There is no account to create, no subscription, and no request leaving your phone. WHAT THAT MEANS IN PRACTICE Your conversations are never uploaded, because there is nowhere to upload them to. No history sitting in a company's database. No terms-of-service change that quietly starts training on your messages. Nothing to delete from a server, because nothing was ever on one. Blackwall works on a plane, on the subway, in a country where the usual assistants are blocked, and on a phone with no SIM. SEVEN CURRENT MODELS, YOUR CHOICE A small model is built in, so you can ask something the second you open the app. From there you pick what you want to run: β€’ Qwen3.5 β€” 0.8B to 9B, from instant short answers to quality-first text work β€’ Gemma 4 E2B β€” general chat plus image and document understanding β€’ MiniCPM-V 4.6 β€” focused OCR for screenshots, receipts and documents β€’ Phi-4 Mini Reasoning β€” English math and structured derivations Each optional download is resumable and checksum-verified. Blackwall tells you whether a model fits your device before you spend the bandwidth, and you can delete any of them later. Already have a model you like? Import any .gguf file and Blackwall will run it. READ, LISTEN, SUMMARISE β€” ALL ON DEVICE β€’ OCR and image understanding: point it at a receipt, a screenshot, a whiteboard β€’ PDF and text documents: summarise a contract without emailing it to anyone β€’ Voice input using Apple's on-device speech recognition β€’ Text-to-speech for replies β€’ Local memory that carries context between conversations β€’ Export any thread as Markdown, or share a reply as an image BUILT FOR THE DEVICE iPad split view with a docked thread list. Keyboard shortcuts. A home-screen and lock-screen widget. Siri Shortcuts β€” "Ask Blackwall" works with no signal. Two appearances: Terminal, the full neon look, with nine themes to pick from β€” or Standard, plain high-contrast type that follows your device's light or dark setting. Five typefaces. Adjustable text size. THE HONEST PART Local models are smaller than the ones running in datacentres. A 4B model on a phone will not match a frontier model on a server, and Blackwall does not pretend otherwise β€” it tells you what each model is good at and what it costs in storage, memory and speed. The one thing Blackwall downloads is the model file itself, from Hugging Face, when you ask it to. After that you can stay offline forever. Requires iOS 17. A device with 6 GB of memory is recommended for mid-size models; the 9B model requires 12 GB.

Screenshots

Elio Chat4 screens
Blackwall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Elio Chat at fortnightly against Blackwall's every 6 weeks. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Elio Chat ships an update fortnightly, Blackwall every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference Β· 7 level
Elio Chat versus Blackwall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElio ChatBlackwall
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsβ€”
Update frequencyFortnightly β€” betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeβ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size34 MB522 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperYuki HamadaCan Kirsallioba

In-app purchases

None

Elio Chat

No in-app purchases

None

Blackwall

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Elio Chat free?
Elio Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Blackwall free?
Blackwall is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Elio Chat or Blackwall have ads?
Neither Elio Chat nor Blackwall shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Elio Chat or Blackwall?
Elio Chat ships an update fortnightly, and Blackwall every 6 weeks. Most recently, Elio Chat was updated on October 31, 2026 and Blackwall on October 31, 2026.

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