ChatGPT iPhone app Omni AI adds on-device voice recognition in latest update

Over the past few months, iPhone apps powered by ChatGPT have flooded the App Store. Just last month, we shared a list of five of our favorites, but there are countless more apps we haven’t had time to cover yet. One such app is the Omni AI assistant and keyboard, and a few days ago, it received its biggest update since launch, adding full-fledged speech recognition.

One of the developers of Omni AI took to Reddit this Sunday to promote the app’s new features. The highlight of version 1.5 is the addition of Omni Speak, which allows users to interact with the ChatGPT via voice using on-device speech recognition technology. Much like Siri, you can wake the AI up by saying, “Hey Omni,” followed by a query.

The developer claims that the team “focused on privacy” when creating Omni Speak, noting that the feature uses Apple’s Speech framework and only sends the queries to OpenAI after you ask a question. Omni Speak also creates a local thread of your voice conversation history, but that data syncs with your iCloud and isn’t stored on any third-party servers.

Aside from speech recognition, the Omni AI app is unique because it integrates the AI assistant directly into your keyboard. That way, you can summon Omni from anywhere to use in any app, from email and messaging to social media and word processing.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about the app is that, in addition to offering a monthly or yearly subscription for access to additional features, it also lets you purchase a lifetime license to use your own API key from OpenAI for $19.99.

If you’ve been cycling through ChatGPT apps but have yet to find one that suits your needs, it might be worth giving Omni AI a shot, especially after its latest update.