Best AI Tools on iOS You Should Install Before 2026

In 2026, the smartest iPhone move isn’t another download. It’s knowing what deserves a spot next to Apple Intelligence. iOS now carries a lot of intelligence on its own. Apple Intelligence runs many requests on the device, and shifts heavier work to Private Cloud Compute that executes on Apple-controlled servers built on Apple silicon without retaining the request data. That privacy design raises the bar for anything you install next.

The best iPhone tools feel native. Look for clean ties into Share Sheet, Siri, and Shortcuts through App Shortcuts and App Intents, so text, links, and images move straight from the screen into an action. Shortcuts can even “receive what’s on screen” from supported apps, which keeps you focused while the app does the work.

Use the picks below when you need more than the built-in features, whether that means faster results, tighter control, or deeper integrations across your daily iOS workflow.

1. Apple Intelligence (Built In)

Best for: Private, system-level writing help and lightweight image creation

Apple’s on-device models quietly power everyday tasks such as rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text inside apps like Mail, Notes, and even third-party editors. When a request is too heavy for the phone, Private Cloud Compute routes it to Apple-controlled servers that run Apple silicon and discard your data after fulfilling the task—no logging for later training.

Visual features live in Image Playground and Image Wand for quick concepts, stickers, and sketch-to-image moments, all reachable in apps or via the standalone Playground. If you own a supported iPhone or iPad, this becomes the baseline assistant that respects iOS permissions and your photo library boundaries.

2. ChatGPT

Best for: Multimodal chat, voice prompts, and session handoff between devices

The official iOS app mirrors your desktop history, supports talk-to-type conversations, and exposes the newest model features without waiting for third-party wrappers to catch up. It’s straightforward for quick briefs, structured outlines, and image-aware prompts; you can dictate on your phone, then continue the same thread on Mac or iPad. Because it’s the canonical client, feature parity tends to arrive here first, which matters for power users who iterate across devices.

3. MachineTranslation.com

Best for: Fast, high-fidelity translations on mobile with engine-to-engine comparison

MachineTranslation.com is a free AI translator from Tomedes that pulls results from multiple MT engines and LLMs so you can compare, score, and refine outputs instead of trusting a single system. It supports 270+ languages, documents and images, and adds workflow helpers like Key Term Translations, quality scoring, and a bilingual segment view for precise edits.

Their new Smart mode (beta) goes a step further by scanning several engines and auto-picking the consensus wording for each segment; the beta is currently desktop-only, making it ideal for quick checks before you commit to a full run. And if you want it on your iPhone or iPad, there’s an official App Store build that mirrors the web features with native convenience.

4. Google Gemini

Best for: Conversational help that blends live voice, camera input, and Google services

Gemini on iPhone handles tap-to-talk sessions, quick camera explanations, and extensions into Workspace and media surfaces. Live mode lets you point the camera and ask follow-ups conversationally, which is handy for travel or troubleshooting. Google’s 2025 wave brought faster live interactions and upgraded built-in creative models, making the iOS client feel less like a wrapper and more like a nimble assistant.

5. Eye2.AI

Best for: Double-checking answers by seeing where top AIs agree

Eye2.ai is a native iOS app that asks several leading models the same question and shows their replies side-by-side. An Agreement Meter highlights overlap so you can spot consensus at a glance, and you can share the entire comparison with a link—handy for teammates or clients.

It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Apple silicon Macs, doesn’t require an account, and is published under © 2025 Tomedes with app support through Tomedes. For research, prompt testing, or high-stakes fact-checking, it turns “Which model should I trust?” into a quick visual read.

6. Microsoft Copilot (plus Microsoft 365 Copilot)

Best for: People who draft in Word, analyze in Excel, and present in PowerPoint

The standalone Copilot app gives you chat, image generation, and linkable answers; the Microsoft 365 Copilot app layers in file-centric workflows, letting you create or refine Office docs and ask questions grounded in your content. Recent updates reshaped the iOS experience to center on AI-first previews and fast pivots into the dedicated Word/Excel/PowerPoint apps for full editing, which is the smoothest handoff on mobile if you live in Microsoft’s ecosystem.

7. Claude by Anthropic

Best for: Long-form drafting and careful reasoning on mobile

Claude’s iOS client syncs with the web app and accepts photo inputs, which makes it useful for summarizing pages, slides, or whiteboards you snap with the camera. Teams get shared workspaces and centralized billing, while individual users benefit from Claude 3/3.5 family upgrades that emphasize structured, source-aware responses. The official App Store build is the one to install; it’s tuned for clean reading and revision passes rather than flashy effects.

8. Perplexity

Best for: Sourced answers and auto-research while you’re mobile

Perplexity behaves more like an answer engine than a blank chat box. Ask a complex question and Deep Research fans out across the web, reads many sources, then returns a synthesis with citations you can tap. On iOS, the app keeps follow-ups in threaded form, so it’s easy to move from a high-level brief to specific references without losing the trail.

9. Arc Search (AI Browser)

Best for: Getting to “the gist” of a topic before you open a dozen tabs

Arc Search’s hallmark features—Browse for Me and Pinch to Summarize—compress results and long pages into quick digests, cutting down scroll fatigue on a small screen. It’s ad-light by default, syncs with Arc on desktop, and supports voice-driven queries when your hands are busy. If you live in Safari but research in bursts, this is an efficient second browser for hunting and skimming.

10. Google NotebookLM

Best for: Turning long PDFs, sites, and videos into audio and study packs

Load your sources into a notebook, then generate Audio Overviews—AI-hosted summaries you can download for offline listening. The mobile app also supports interactive Q&A, so you can nudge the “hosts” to dive deeper into a section and then save outputs like study guides or briefs. For students and analysts, this shrinks dense material into commutes and gym sessions without losing the citations.

11. Adobe Firefly (Mobile)

Best for: Phone-first image and video generation with Creative Cloud handoff

Adobe’s mobile Firefly app puts prompt-to-image/video tools and commercially safer models in your pocket, then syncs outputs back to Creative Cloud for polishing in Photoshop or Express. You can mix Adobe’s own models with select partner models, and credits govern heavier workloads. It’s the quickest way to thumb-sketch concepts and keep them in the Creative Cloud pipeline.

12. CapCut

Best for: Rapid social edits with AI effects and subtitles

CapCut’s iPhone editor combines auto-captions, text-to-speech, background removal, and motion tracking—useful when you’re cutting vertical video on a deadline. Templates and effects help keep you on-trend, while exports target TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Reels. It’s not a full NLE, but for phone-only publishing it’s fast and forgiving.

13. Notion (with Notion AI)

Best for: Notes, docs, and databases that think with you

Notion’s mobile app lets you capture ideas, manage projects, and query your workspace with Notion AI without leaving the page you’re on. Use it to restructure messy notes, draft content blocks, or pull status across linked databases. On iOS, the “AI everything app” positioning makes sense when you switch between writing and lightweight task management all day.

14. Grammarly Keyboard

Best for: System-wide polish—grammar, clarity, and tone—inside any app

Install the keyboard and you get inline edits in Mail, social apps, docs, and CMS fields without copy-paste. It flags grammatical issues, suggests rewrites, and nudges tone toward formal, friendly, or concise depending on the context. If you write in many different apps on iPhone, this is the simplest way to normalize quality.

15. Otter.ai

Best for: Real-time transcription, meeting notes, and action items

Tap record and Otter builds a live transcript as people speak; after the meeting it auto-summarizes, captures slides, and pulls out tasks. On iOS, it doubles as a lecture or interview notebook, with search over everything you’ve recorded. Integrations with Zoom/Meet/Teams keep remote calls organized without juggling separate bots.

Conclusion

A practical way to choose iOS AI tools in 2026 is to start with Apple Intelligence, which handles many tasks on device and uses Private Cloud Compute for more complex requests, then add only apps that clearly extend that baseline. Before installing anything, check the App Privacy label and favor apps that support App Shortcuts and App Intents so you can trigger actions from Siri or the Share Sheet.