Alt Text Intelligence vs Sotto

Pick a photo, get editable alt text, and copy or publish it in a few taps. Alt Text Intelligence combines a consented cloud description with a dependable on-device fallback. HOW IT WORKS • Choose, take, paste, or share a photo. • Confirm before a photo is sent for cloud analysis. • Review and edit the description in your own words. • Copy the alt text, share an image with its description embedded, or publish to a connected social account. LOCAL-FIRST FALLBACK When cloud describe is declined, unavailable, or out of daily quota, the app keeps working on device. The local pipeline uses Vision cues such as recognized text, classifications, faces, animals, saliency, and dominant color to compose a factual description. Supported devices can also use the system language model to refine those grounded cues. LENGTH AND PLATFORM GUIDANCE Choose Brief, Standard, or Detailed, then optionally apply a practical destination limit for Bluesky, Mastodon, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram / Threads. A destination can shorten the result but never makes a deliberately brief description longer. The standards report links back to accessibility guidance. WAYS TO DESCRIBE • Use the Alt Text tab for photos, camera captures, or clipboard images. • Share an image from another app and get an editable description. • Use the Photos action extension without leaving Photos. • Run Describe an Image from Shortcuts, Siri, or Spotlight. • Reopen a saved image from History and compose a fresh write-up. PRIVACY • Cloud describe runs only after confirmation and uses an anonymous quota identifier. • Our server does not retain uploaded images. • Paid inference requests are not used to train language models. • On-device describe keeps the photo local. • No account is required. • Optional diagnostic reports stay on the device unless you choose to email one. • No tracking. ACCESSIBILITY • Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, Bold Text, and system accessibility settings are supported. • Atkinson Hyperlegible Next and the system font are available. • Reading spacing, contrast, transparency, motion, and non-color differentiation controls complement system settings. • W3C WAI guidance is cited throughout the app. HISTORY AND EXPORT Every completed write-up saves locally to History. Export saved alt text, length presets, and thumbnails as JSON when you explicitly accept the export notice. Alt Text Intelligence is built by Luke Steuber, Bridge City Lab LLC.

Sotto is the notetaker that starts itself. Tap Start before a meeting (or a day full of them) and put your phone away. Sotto keeps listening in the background, notices when people actually start talking, and records only those moments. Every conversation becomes a clean transcript with meeting notes, written entirely on your iPhone. After you tap Start, Sotto records audio in the background until you stop it. While it listens, iOS shows the orange microphone indicator and Sotto keeps a Live Activity on your lock screen. WHY SOTTO • Starts itself — on-device voice detection opens each recording the moment speech begins and closes it when the conversation ends. • Private by default — audio and transcripts never leave your iPhone unless you choose otherwise. Transcription and notes are generated on-device using Apple Intelligence. • Plain files, no lock-in — every conversation is a Markdown file you can open in the Files app. No account. No subscription. • Tidy by default — once a transcript is safely written, the audio is deleted. Prefer to keep recordings? Choose 7 days or forever. WEAR IT (OPTIONAL) Pair an Omi wearable and Sotto records from its microphone over Bluetooth instead of the phone's. If the wearable disconnects or runs down, your iPhone microphone takes over automatically. NOTES, YOUR WAY Summaries are generated on-device by default. Want a bigger model? Bring your own API key for OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenRouter — or point Sotto at a server you run yourself (Ollama works). Only transcript text is ever sent, never audio, and only under your own account. SYNC & BACK UP (OPTIONAL) • iCloud Drive — transcripts mirror automatically to iCloud. Audio stays on the phone. • WebDAV — back up transcripts (and, if you choose, audio) to your own server, such as Nextcloud. RECORDING RESPONSIBLY Recording conversations is a legal responsibility that varies by place — some regions require everyone's consent. Sotto explains this before your first session and asks you to accept that responsibility, and its always-visible indicators help you stay honest with the people around you. REQUIRES iOS 26 or later. Transcription works fully offline after a one-time speech-model download. On-device transcription and notes need an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence; on other devices Sotto still records and saves conversations for you. Omi wearable optional.