Seeing AI5.6.1

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.

Version History This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 5.6.1 09/04/2025 • You can now review recently taken photos and their descriptions. Select "History" in the menu.
• Updated the main screen layout based on your feedback.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 5.6 07/30/2025 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 5.5.1 03/21/2025 • We have updated the Seeing AI interface to make it faster to access the features you use the most.
• The app is split into three tabs:
• Read: Provides tools for reading, combining the functionality of the previous Short Text, Document, and Handwriting channels.
• Describe: Provides rich descriptions of your surroundings, or photos already on your phone. This combines the functionality of the previous Scene and Person channels.
• More: Provides access to all the other task-specific channels.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 5.5 02/03/2025 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better.

Recent improvements include:

• Seeing AI can now describe videos! Select "Browse Photos" from the menu, or share an MP4 file with Seeing AI, and hear it described, scene-by-scene.
• You can now recognize PDF documents with Seeing AI.
• After tapping "More Info" to get a rich description of an image, you can now ask questions on the same screen.
• Reduced the amount of time it takes to get a rich description, or answers to your questions.
• Reduced the amount of time it takes to get a rich description.
• When using a large accessibility font size, press and hold on toolbar items to see a large content preview.
• On the Product channel, both barcodes and Enhanced QR codes can now be recognized at the same time.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 5.4 10/31/2024 • Find My Things - This new feature, available via the World channel on devices running iOS 14+, enables you to teach Seeing AI to recognize your personal objects. Most AI systems focus on large datasets of generic objects, so we built this system that provides an audio-first experience to teach new objects yourself. You can then follow the audio cues to locate your things.
• Ask questions about photos (English only) - You can now ask Seeing AI questions about photos on the Scene channel, in Browse Photos, or those shared from another app. For example, after hearing the rich description, you may wish to hear more about a specific aspect of the image.
• Rich image descriptions, when you tap "More Info", have been improved to include even more details. Additionally, the names of people you have taught Seeing AI to identify are now included. And, this is now available in all 19 languages in which Seeing AI is localized.
• Handwriting recognition is now also available in Japanese and Korean.
• Document orientation - After scanning a document, you can find out which way round it is - useful when organizing multiple pages for stapling, for example. Tap "More", then "Page Info".
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 5.3 04/05/2024 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 5.2.1 01/04/2024 • Rich Image Descriptions: Seeing AI can now provide far more detail in image descriptions. Take a photo on the Scene channel, select an image in Browse Photos, or share a photo from another app - and then tap "More Info".
• Ask Questions About Documents: On the Document channel, after scanning a page, you can now ask Seeing AI questions about its contents. This can be much more efficient than listening to the document from beginning-to-end. For example, you could scan a menu, and ask for just the vegetarian options; scan a receipt, and find out how much a particular item cost; or scan a calendar, and ask when a particular event is.
• Multi-page document scanning: On the Document channel, you can now scan multiple pages into a single document for reading, or sharing.
• For easier access to image descriptions, the Scene channel has been moved to earlier in the channel switcher. You can customize the order of channels in Settings.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood.
• Please remember to use your judgement when reading AI generated content. We appreciate your feedback as the technology continues to evolve. 5.2 10/13/2023 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 5.1.1 09/05/2023 • In this release we have made improvements to the Artificial Intelligence throughout Seeing AI, providing increased accuracy.
• Scene Channel and Browse Photos: We hope you enjoy the improved photo descriptions. In Browse Photos, you can tap "Reanalyze" to update the descriptions. When exploring a photo, you will receive richer descriptions of items within the photo.
• Short Text Channel: More accurate text recognition, with a smoother reading experience even if the phone is moved slightly.
• Document Channel: Improved recognition of formatting, such as headings and tables.
• Product Channel: Improved barcode recognition on devices running iOS 16.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 5.1 05/11/2023 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 5.0.1 03/06/2023 • Indoor Navigation, available on iOS 14 and later, enables you to create routes through a building, and later follow that route, guided by spatial audio cues. For example, create a route from the reception desk to your office, or building entrance to a particular classroom. You can share the route with others, so they can navigate the route later on, using their own device.
• On the World Channel, when using headphones which support Spatial Audio, you no longer need to look in the direction of the camera. Seeing AI will adjust to the direction you’re looking, so sounds still come from the correct point in the room. Supported headphones include AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro.
• Improved announcements of people on the World Channel, when using a device with LiDAR.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 5.0 01/30/2023 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.8 11/02/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.7 10/31/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.6 09/28/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.5 09/25/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.4 09/14/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.3 09/07/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.2 09/06/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.3.1 04/19/2022 • More updates to the barcode scanner on the Product Channel, based on your feedback.
• A number of optimizations to the World Channel.
• Plus, various bug fixes under the hood. 4.3 03/24/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.2.6 03/09/2022 This release includes several bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.2.5 03/03/2022 This release includes various bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.2.4 01/01/2022 This release includes various bug fixes to make your experience even better. 4.2.3 12/22/2021