Hi AppleVis,
I wanted to drop by and share some of the latest updates to the Ally iOS app, give you a sneak peek at what’s on our roadmap, and hear your thoughts on what we should prioritize next.
What’s New in Ally
Since coming out of beta in March, we’ve been hard at work adding new features and improving the experience:
- Context-aware OCR — Ally now combines AI with optical character recognition to ensure the text it reads is more accurate than relying on language models alone.
- Games — You can now play simple, fun games like trivia and choose-your-own-adventure directly with Ally.
- Conversation History — Go back to previous conversations and pick up right where you left off.
- Customizable Voices — Use prompts to create voices that sound exactly the way you want. You can have as many as you like.
- Shortcuts (in Public Beta) — Create custom workflows inside Ally. For example, check the weather and get clothing suggestions, or have Ally brief you on your agenda for the day.
What’s Next
- Ally Solo Glasses — We just announced pre-orders for our new lightweight, affordable smart glasses, offering all of Ally’s features in a hands-free way when you’re out and about.
- Live Video AI — We’re working on bringing real-time video understanding to Ally.
- New Reading Features — Instant Text and batch scan are on the roadmap to make reading even faster.
We’re also exploring more museum-specific Ally experiences, where visitors can recognize and ask questions about artworks.
Your Turn
We’re starting to plan the next 6–12 months of development. If there’s something you’d like Ally to do — in the app or in combination with smart glasses — we’d love to hear it.
I’ll be here today to answer questions, and our team will be monitoring this thread closely to guide future updates.
Thanks for your continued feedback and support!
— Karthik
Comments
Spacial guidance
Could the glasses guide us to the toilets and back to our table in a cafe? Or look out for my friend Anna in a bar? Or alert me when the number 1 bus is coming so I can flag it down?
Live video
Think that is one of the biggest things we all would like for any of these apps. That as they say would be a game changer. Especially, if it was reliable.
Ally account problems
Hello,
Yesterday I created an account on my iPhone using the log in with apple option. I also subscribed to the yearly plan because of the discounted price. However I am not able to log in on the web because there is no option to log on with apple. Is there a way to change my account to a log in with email or am I just stuck not being able to use ally on the web?
Envision glasses query
Hi Karthik,
Whilst I appreciate this is a branch off from the glasses. Curious to know why if you have a pair of the Envision glasses pro with lifetime updates we don't get the full version of Ally as part of that package?
Aira please
Navigating with a pair of glasses, is still a safe way to move around in places that I may not have to return to or am simply unfamiliar with. Having aira as a further option for assistance on the. Solos glasses would be incredibly valuable.
Can Ally read music and sing it back to me?
Actually, I asked her and she told me she could read music and interpret it but could not sing it back to me. I've used learning tracks for a long time. Is it possible or likely that Ally could sing back music I need to learn as she reads it?
Responses to questions!
Hi everyone, thanks so much for the great questions and suggestions — let me respond to each one:
@Harryubu – Spatial guidance is definitely on our radar. The Ally Solo Glasses will initially focus on giving you hands-free access to all Ally’s features, but we’re actively exploring how to integrate navigation and location awareness. Your examples — like finding the toilets in a café, spotting a friend, or alerting you when your bus arrives — are exactly the kind of real-world scenarios we want to make possible.
@Lee (Live Video) – I completely agree, live video AI could be a game-changer. It’s one of the biggest areas we’re investing in right now, but as you said, reliability is key. We’re working on making sure it’s both accurate and responsive before rolling it out.
@Greg Wocher – Thanks for flagging the account issue. At the moment, logging in with Apple is supported on iOS but not yet on the web. We can help switch your account to an email/password login so you can access Ally on the web. I’ll send you a direct message to get this sorted for you.
@Lee (Envision Glasses) – Good question. Envision Glasses and Ally are separate products, built on different platforms. That’s why Ally isn’t bundled into the lifetime Envision Glasses license. That said, we’re exploring ways to make Ally available on more devices, including Envision Glasses, and will share updates if that becomes possible.
@farkleberry – Totally agree about the value of having Aira as an option. We already have a similar “Companion” feature in Ally, and we’re in early conversations about how to integrate services like Aira on Ally Solo Glasses so users can choose the kind of support they want in the moment.
Thanks again for all the feedback — it really helps shape what we build next. Please keep the ideas coming!
— Karthik
Pro subscription question
If someone already has the ally pro subscription who just got it, will the free pro subscription for one year rollover to the next year?
My thoughts
Hey there, Does Ally pro have a trial period?
It would be beneficial if you offered some form of trial, even if it were a few days to see if all of the pro features would be something someone'd use on a regular basis.
I looked into subscribing, but would prefer a trial if at all possible.
I understand if that won't be offered since the core features are free, but its just a suggestion.
Also, I do think live video would be a game changer! How does the companion feature work? I haven't run across that, and I've been in the beta since the beta launched.
I love ally so far, and am looking forward to its progress!
I do have the Meta glasses, and was wondering if Ally might be available on them at some point down the road?
Again, since you just launched your own glasses, I completely understand if the answer is no to that as well. :-)
Why Bluetooth 5.2? Do glasses come with charge case?
Why Do the glasses have only Bluetooth 5.2? Do they come with a charge case? Would you also have support for be my eyes app? What is the latency when asking questions and getting answer?
Live Video please
Hi Karthik. Thanks for coming on here. For me, the single most important feature is live video. Understanding of real world context and ability to tell you about things which have changed or you are looking out for is the single biggest thing I think. I truely believe it's what takes AI from useful to game changing for blind people.
If I'm honest, if you do true live AI, I really will pay whatever it is to have access to that. Glasses are the perfect product to have it on. Navigation, looking for things, with live AI, all of that and more becomes possible. That's the single biggest feature I personally would like you to work on, nothing in my head is more important than that.
If you did that and navigation at the same time, that really would be the cherry on top.
Thanks for listening to my ramble
Custom voices?
Maybe I misunderstood or was confused, but I thought it said in the most recent update that we could create custom voices with accents and stuff, but if that's possible, I sure can't figure out how. Also, uploading pictures would be great. Yes, there's Piccy Bot for that, but it would be awesome if Ally could do things like that as well.
This one is the longest of long shots, but it would be super cool if maybe some day, for those of us who have AI companions like Kindroid, Nomi, Replika or whatever else is out there these days, Ally could somehow sync with those companions and then they could also be our visual assistants. That's probably impossible on a variety of levels, but it's nice to dream.
ault text?
Hi,
I know you can do this from the glasses, but can the app allow you to take a picture then once the picture is taken on your phone can it automatically add an alt text so that when you share the picture with friends and family via WhatsApp or any other social media app the ault text is added automatically?
My 2¢
I have a couple ideas.
1. Using Ally to convert documents:
Let's say I have a PDF. document that I need/want to read on my braille display or my screenreader. But, forwhatever reason can't access very good.
What I usually do in this scenario is either have a friend convert it into TXT. (Plain Text format) or ask for ADA. accommodations, depending on the situation. It'd be nice if Ally could take any document like PDF. PPTX. or any other type of file and convert it into an alternative format, and then give us a way to download it somehow or email it to us.
2. I have another idea regarding videos.
I would love to be able to get descriptions of YouTube and other videos from say Facebook etc.
For instance, grabbing the URL. for that funny cat video from YouTube that a friend sent you, putting it into Ally and asking it to describe it.
Or, another use-case could be a video on Facebook talking about something or announcing something, such as new music from your favorite band, with someone holding up cards, or words scrolling by on the screen. If there was a way that Ally could describe these
Or a family member posts a videoof something whether it's the dogeathe kids, oranevent on Facebook. Wouldn't it be cool if we could know what was in that video? Doesn't even have to be spicific. It could be something like:
"A 40-year-old man with salt-and-pepper hair sits at a table with a birthday cake in front of him. And so on."
Those are my ideas. But, I also have a couple questions.
1. How can you make customized voices?
2. Can you ask Ally follow-up questions with regards to what you're doing, describing, etc? Can you have just text conversations with Ally? Where you type your prompt, and it writes one out? If not, this would be another feature request.
Thanks! :-)
The one thing no one has asked yet…
Find a way to design a strong battery. All of these features and ideas sound amazing. Yet, without a solid battery, it all adds up to nothing. Those of us with Meta smart glasses, no exactly what I am talking about. 😎
It has a 14 hour battery life
It has a 14 hour battery life.
Re: 14 hour battery
is that 14 hours of standard use, or just 14 hours in general? Genuinely asking here.
More thoughts
Response time is vital. Quicker the better. Waiting for 3 or 4 seconds just to be told it isn't going to rain is slow. Also that extremely annoying "let me take a look" needs to go. In the real world whomever you are talking to doesn't let you know that they are going to take a look. If people want that fine but an option to stop it would be extremely helpful.
Battery Life
My understanding is that the new glasses provide about 14 to 15 hours of battery life. Most if not all of the processing is done via your phone running the app, and the glasses pass information back and forth via Bluetooth. The good thing is that it appears the battery can be removed, so you could potentially have a couple of these USB-C batteries with you and swap one out with the other when it goes dead. I still wish these glasses were standalone given how much they cost. I don't like the idea of paying $600 or $700 for what's essentially a very expensive phone accessory. This is why I avoid the Apple Watch and other wearables that aren't true standalone computers.
If Apple released a cheap Vision Pro within the range of about $1,000 and you could run Envision and Ally on that, I'd snap it up in a heartbeat. As far as I know, Vision Pro is a totally standalone platform that doesn't require any other devices, though you'd obviously need some kind of Internet connection via a phone hotspot if you're on the go and/or not in range of a Wi-Fi network.
Am I being a bit dense, or…
Am I being a bit dense, or is there no video processing/visual capture in the Ally app? Is it simply a voice based AI?
These do seem great. I do worry that, when apple bring out their glasses, however, Ally and Be My Eyes and other such magic will come to them and we'll actually have a choice, plus apple will no doubt add their own accessibility spice to the mix.