Seeing AI vs HelpTech+
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
HelpTech+
Enhance your Braille display experience with advanced features. Follow Braille output on your iPhone screen, dictate text using your voice, and have texts read aloud. Manage files and send text directly to your Braille device.
- Braille monitor for sighted users
- Dictation function for text input
- Voice output for reading texts aloud
- File manager for Activator and iPhone
- Send text from iPhone clipboard
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The perfect complement to the Activator: HelpTech+. HelpTech+ adds many new features to the Activator, Help Tech's latest braille display innovation, making it a next-generation Braille experience once and for all. Braille monitor The integrated Braille monitor allows a sighted person to follow the information output on the Braille display directly on the iPhone screen. Including the indication of the reading position, marked text and the cursor position. Dictation function With the speech input you can easily dictate texts instead of typing them yourself. The recognized text is then either saved in a new file on the Activator or inserted into an existing file at the desired position. Voice output The speech output function allows you to have texts on the Activator read aloud through the iPhone's speakers. File manager With "HelpTech+" you can copy files back and forth between the Activator and your iPhone. Send texts Send texts from the iPhone clipboard directly to the Activator. The connection with the iPhone expands the internal functions of the Activator by SmartServices. The first feature is a news feed service, optimized for the use with Braille displays, which you can put together according to your personal interests. Furthermore we are continuously developing "HelpTech+". Additional new functions will be provided regularly. As a result, we will continue to offer you a first-class experience in the future.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: HelpTech+ at 5.0 against Seeing AI's 4.3. Seeing AI's advantage is ratings volume (626 vs 2) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 3 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
HelpTech+ holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Seeing AI has 626 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Seeing AI ships an update every 2 months, HelpTech+ every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Seeing AI | HelpTech+ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (626 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 626 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 309 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Microsoft Corporation | Help Tech GmbH |
Customer experience
Seeing AI
HelpTech+
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
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- Provide more customization options for voice settings
HelpTech+
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Seeing AI
No in-app purchases
HelpTech+
No in-app purchases








