Comparison

Seeing AI vs Babelfish Translator

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

Babelfish Translator

This app offers real-time speech transcription and translation across multiple languages. It features live captions for external audio, a conversation mode for face-to-face communication, and a personal phrasebook for saving common expressions. Your history and phrases sync across Apple devices.

Highlights
  • Live transcription with real-time translation
  • Live Captions mode for external audio
  • Two-way Conversation Mode
  • Personal Phrasebook with categories and favorites
  • Transcription and conversation history saving
  • Share Extension for translating text from other apps
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
Features
Read full description

Babelfish helps you understand and be understood in real time. Transcribe speech, translate instantly, save useful phrases, and keep your language tools ready across iPhone, widgets, and Apple Watch. Babelfish includes live transcription with real-time translation, a Live Captions mode for external audio like TV and videos, and a two-way Conversation Mode for face-to-face communication in different languages. You can build a personal Phrasebook with categories, favorites, search, and one-tap common phrase generation. Your transcription history, conversation history, and live caption sessions are saved for quick review. Babelfish also includes a Share Extension to translate text from other apps and save it to your Phrasebook, plus support for Apple Translate and Google Translate with offline-aware fallback. When signed in, iCloud sync keeps your transcriptions, phrases, and history up to date across your Apple devices. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Seeing AI4 screens
Babelfish Translator4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Seeing AI at 69% against Babelfish Translator's 0%. Seeing AI also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, update cadence 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. Babelfish Translator sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Seeing AI asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Seeing AI holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Seeing AI has 633 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of Seeing AI's written reviews are positive against 0% of Babelfish Translator's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Seeing AI ships an update every 2 months, Babelfish Translator monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Seeing AI versus Babelfish Translator: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSeeing AIBabelfish Translator
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (633 ratings) — better3.4 (10 ratings)
Positive reviews68.6% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings633 — better10
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size309 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMicrosoft Corporationwilder.dev

Customer experience

Seeing AI

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

Babelfish Translator

All ratings10 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative30.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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

Babelfish Translator

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Seeing AI

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Babelfish Translator

Subscriptions2
  • Babelfish Premium$2.991 Month
  • Babelfish Premium$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Seeing AI free?
Seeing AI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Babelfish Translator free?
Babelfish Translator is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Seeing AI or Babelfish Translator?
Seeing AI is rated higher. Seeing AI averages 4.3 out of 5 from 633 ratings, while Babelfish Translator averages 3.4 from 10 ratings.
Do Seeing AI or Babelfish Translator have ads?
Babelfish Translator shows ads; Seeing AI does not.
Which is updated more often, Seeing AI or Babelfish Translator?
Seeing AI ships an update every 2 months, and Babelfish Translator monthly. Most recently, Seeing AI was updated on October 24, 2026 and Babelfish Translator on October 7, 2026.

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