Comparison

Seeing AI vs Envision AI

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

Head to head
About

Seeing AI

This free app uses AI to narrate the visual world for individuals who are blind or have low vision. It describes people, text, and objects, assisting with daily tasks like reading documents, identifying products, and recognizing faces.

Highlights
  • Read text and documents
  • Describe photos and objects
  • Scan product barcodes
  • Recognize people and currency
  • Identify personal objects
  • Augmented reality environment exploration
  • Identify colors and light levels
Read full description

Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed with and for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world by describing nearby people, text and objects. Seeing AI provides tools to assist with a variety of daily tasks: • Read - Hear text as soon as it appears in front of the camera. Document alignment provides audio cues to capture a printed page and recognize the text along with its original formatting. Ask Seeing AI about the contents to easily find the information you need. • Describe - Take photos to hear a rich description. Ask questions to focus on the information you care about. Explore photos by moving your finger over the screen to hear the location of different objects. • Products - Scan barcodes and Accessible QR codes using audio beeps to guide you; hear the product name and package information when available. • People - Save photos of friends and coworkers so you can recognize them later. Get an estimate of their age, gender, and expression. • Currency - Recognize currency notes. • Find My Things - Teach Seeing AI to recognize your personal objects and follow the audio cues to find them later. • World - An Audio Augmented Reality experience to explore an unfamiliar environment, including hearing objects announced around you with Spatial Audio (requires a device with a LiDAR, and iOS 14+). • Colors - Identify colors. • Light - Hear an audible tone corresponding to the brightness of your surroundings. • Photos and Videos in other apps - Just tap “Share” and “Recognize with Seeing AI” to describe media from Mail, Photos, WhatsApp, and more. • Browse Photos - Hear descriptions of photos and videos saved on your device. Seeing AI continues to evolve as we hear from the community, and AI research advances. Visit http://SeeingAI.com for more details. Questions, feedback or feature requests? Email us at SeeingAI@Microsoft.com.

About

Envision AI

This app uses AI and OCR to read text, describe surroundings, and identify objects for users who are blind or have low vision. It offers features like instant text reading in multiple languages, document scanning, scene description, and object detection to promote independence.

Highlights
  • Instant text reading in 60+ languages
  • Audio-guided document scanning
  • Scene and object description
  • Barcode scanning for product info
  • People and object detection
  • Image and PDF description
Features
Read full description

Envision is the fastest, most reliable and award-winning OCR app that speaks out the visual world, helping people who are blind or have low vision lead more independent lives. Envision is developed for and together with the blind and low vision community. The app is simple, gets things done and brings the best assistive experience to blind and low vision users. Simply use your phone camera to scan any piece of text, your surroundings, objects, people or products and everything will be read out to you thanks to Envision’s smart artificial intelligence (AI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). _____________________ What Envision users say about the app: “Easy going text recognition. Text recognition is outstanding. Good for independence. Ease of use is immaculate” - Noahis from Australia “Amazing. I love it. I'm blind and I love how easy it is to use. Amazing job!!!!” - Matt from Canada ___________________ With full talkback support, Envision enables you to: Read all kinds of text: • Instantly read any piece of text in over 60 different languages. • Easily scan your paper documents (single or multiple pages) with the help of audio-guided edge detection. All content is spoken back to you and is ready for export and edit. • Import PDFs and images to get a description of the image and recognition of all the text within it. • Quickly read handwritten postcards, letters, lists and other paperwork. Know what's around you: • Effortlessly describe visual scenes around you. • Detect colour on your clothes, walls, books, you name it. • Swiftly scan barcodes to get extensive information about the products. Find what you're looking for: • Find people around you; the names of your family and friends are spoken out whenever they are in the frame. • Find objects around you; selecting common objects from the in-app list to find them. Share: • Share images or documents from your phone or other apps like Twitter or WhatsApp by selecting Envision from the share sheet. Envision can then read and describe those images for you. ___________________ Feedback, questions or feature requests? We welcome everyone to provide their feedback about the Envision app, as we’re constantly improving. Please email us at support@LetsEnvision.com. ___________________ Please read our Terms of Use & Privacy Policy: https://www.LetsEnvision.com/terms If you're still reading all the way down here, we'd like to thank you for your diligence, attention to detail and general commitment to finishing something that you started. Just like all the team working at Envision!

Screenshots

Seeing AI4 screens
Envision AI4 screens

Verdict

The call

Seeing AI and Envision AI both sit at 4.3 stars, but that hides the real split: 69% of Seeing AI's written reviews are positive against 58% of Envision AI's. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Seeing AI against 4.2 for Envision AI. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 633 and 595 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 69% of Seeing AI's written reviews are positive against 58% of Envision AI's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Seeing AI ships an update every 2 months, Envision AI every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Seeing AI versus Envision AI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSeeing AIEnvision AI
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (633 ratings) — better4.2 (595 ratings)
Positive reviews68.6% of reviews — better58.1% of reviews
Number of ratings633 — better595
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size309 MB373 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMicrosoft CorporationEnvision Technologies B.V.

Customer experience

Seeing AI

All ratings626 ratings
Positive78.3%
Neutral10.9%
Negative10.9%
Written reviews204 reviews
Positive68.6%
Neutral11.3%
Negative20.1%

Envision AI

All ratings591 ratings
Positive74.1%
Neutral18.1%
Negative7.8%
Written reviews370 reviews
Positive58.1%
Neutral16.2%
Negative25.7%

User reviews

Seeing AI

From 633 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Helpful for visually impaired users
  • 🚀 Accurate text and document recognition
  • 🚀 Useful for reading labels, mail, and other text
  • 👍 Comprehensive set of features in one app
  • 👍 Life-changing for some users

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes or becomes unusable after updates
  • 🐛 Inconsistent performance in scanning barcodes and recognizing colors
  • 🐛 Facial recognition not very accurate
  • 🔒 Privacy concerns with facial recognition
  • 👎 Difficult to navigate for blind users due to small buttons

Envision AI

From 595 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and accurate text recognition
  • 🔍 Excellent object and scene description
  • 👍 Helpful for independence and accessibility
  • 🔍 Accurate barcode and color recognition

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🌐 Limited language support

Bugs and requests

Seeing AI

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Barcode scanning not working consistently
  • Document reader sometimes fails to load or process documents
  • Frequent crashes or app becoming unresponsive

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add support for more languages, including Arabic and Chinese
  • Improve accuracy of color and facial recognition
  • Allow users to read digital displays like clocks and appliances
  • Integrate with screen readers like VoiceOver for better accessibility
  • Add an offline mode for using the app without an internet connection
Show 1 more
  • Provide more customization options for voice settings

Envision AI

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Instant text reader mixes languages and has poor formatting
  • Document scanning sometimes fails to detect document edges
  • Facial recognition often misidentifies people
  • Barcode scanner not working reliably in latest version

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for more languages, including Punjabi and Gujarati
  • Improve handwriting recognition accuracy
  • Implement offline mode for text recognition
  • Add a feature to save and organize recognized text

In-app purchases

None

Seeing AI

No in-app purchases

None

Envision AI

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Seeing AI free?
Seeing AI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Envision AI free?
Envision AI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Seeing AI or Envision AI?
Seeing AI is rated higher. Seeing AI averages 4.3 out of 5 from 633 ratings, while Envision AI averages 4.2 from 595 ratings.
Do Seeing AI or Envision AI have ads?
Neither Seeing AI nor Envision AI shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Seeing AI or Envision AI?
Seeing AI ships an update every 2 months, and Envision AI every 5 weeks. Most recently, Seeing AI was updated on November 3, 2026 and Envision AI on November 3, 2026.

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