Key Takeaways
- AI apps are now available in various fields such as productivity, education, entertainment, and more, catering to a range of needs.
- The best AI apps include ChatGPT for creative writing and problem-solving, WOMBO Dream for AI-generated art, and Youper for mental health support.
- While AI technology is growing rapidly, it's important to remember that it may have occasional flaws, but its benefits will continue to evolve and improve.
AI's unprecedented growth is not news to anyone at this point, and knowing its immense potential, we are now starting to use it in every field, including productivity, education, entertainment, and more.
No matter your needs, there's probably an AI tool for you. To catch you up to speed, here are the best AI apps you can download on your phone (iPhone or Android) right now. All of these apps are free to use and offer unique features.
1. ChatGPT
You've probably already used OpenAI's ChatGPT by now; it's the fastest-growing app of all time, after all. Like most people, you must've first discovered the AI chatbot via its desktop site.
Luckily, the tool is now officially available for mobile devices as well—both iPhone and Android. There are endless creative ways you can use ChatGPT, such as writing stories, summarizing a book, writing an email, solving math problems, and more.
Download: ChatGPT for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
2. WOMBO Dream
WOMBO Dream is an AI art generator tool that lets you create images from text prompts, just like Midjourney or DALL-E. The app is easy to use and allows you to choose from different art styles such as anime, retro, comic, realistic, fantastical, steampunk, polygon, and more.
If you have a photo in your gallery that you want to use as a reference for your art, you can add that to the app and write a prompt on top describing what changes you want.
To get more accurate results, you can even adjust how strong you want the AI to be. You can also choose from different aspect ratios for posting on social media, but it's one of the features locked behind a premium subscription.
Download: WOMBO Dream for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
3. Youper
Youper is a mental health chatbot that uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques to "help you calm anxiety, improve your relationships, be more productive, and improve your mood." It's meant for those who don't have the time to visit a therapist in-person every week.
The app contains a range of mindfulness activities like breathing exercises, a deep body scan, and various types of meditation. As you use the app on a daily basis, it tracks your mood and develops insights showing your progress over time in reducing anxiety and feeling calmer.
After five days of daily check-ins, the app develops insights to show your changing emotional states. Do note that features like health monitoring and anxiety screening are locked behind a premium subscription, so you won't be able to track your progress unless you pay for it.
Download: Youper for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
4. Replika
Replika is an AI chatbot companion app designed for "anyone who wants a friend with no judgment, drama, or social anxiety involved." You can select the appearance of your AI companion and choose what relationship you want to have with them, including a friend, sibling, mentor, or romantic partner.
Over time, the AI learns facts about you and your interests to try to make conversations feel more natural. In our testing, however, the chatbot sometimes made stuff up, which felt a bit weird. But if you can ignore the occasional hiccups, it's a fun app to pass some time.
Download: Replika for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
5. Be My Eyes
Be My Eyes is a global community of volunteers that helps blind and visually impaired people—usually the elderly—perform everyday tasks that are otherwise difficult to do without good eyesight. This interaction happens either over live chat or video calls.
With the latest update, the app has integrated AI into the mix for instant support with a new image-to-text generator called the Virtual Volunteer tool, powered by OpenAI's GPT-4. If the AI tool proves unhelpful, the app allows you to connect with a human helper instead.
Download: Be My Eyes for Android | iOS (Free)
6. Bing
Microsoft's Bing search engine is now powered by GPT-4, making it an excellent option for Android users who don't yet have the ChatGPT app available to download. Aside from having an integrated chatbot, Bing's Image Creator tool allows you to create images from text prompts via DALL-E.
As GPT evolves, Bing will become smarter, and you'll be able to get instant answers for almost any query. This is just one of the many ways AI search engines will change the internet.
Download: Bing for Android | iOS (Free)
7. ELSA
ELSA is an English learning app powered by AI that helps you improve your pronunciation. It's perfect for those who speak English as a second language and want to improve their conversational fluency to better communicate with others.
ELSA acts like your personal English tutor, offering customized lessons and feedback. You can decide whether you want to practice speaking like a native for 10, 15, or 20 minutes a day. The app tracks your progress as you get better and grants special features with its paid plan.
Download: ELSA for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
8. Otter
Otter is an AI-powered voice transcription service designed to make taking meeting minutes easier. It joins your meeting like an attendee, taking notes on your behalf in real-time while adding the slides shared in the meeting to view later.
Once the meeting is done, it prepares a summary of everything discussed, so you can jump to the parts most relevant to you and check out key action items.
Download: Otter for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
There's an AI App for Almost Everything
As amazing as these AI tools are, it's wise to remember that—all things considered—the technology is still in its infancy and is likely to deliver inaccurate, inappropriate, irrelevant, or unwanted results sometimes.
The good news is that AI is growing exponentially, so a lot of the complaints that we currently have will likely be addressed sooner than you might expect, and its benefits will be available for us all to reap. Still, it's never a bad idea to proceed with caution.
