A free app from ALTtext.org
ALTeyes
Point your phone. Hear what it is.
The seeing app you don't have to learn. ALT Eyes reads, describes, finds and answers, out loud. It's free.
Open ALT Eyes — free →Works on any iPhone or Android phone, in the browser. No account, nothing to install. The corners of the screen are the buttons, so you can use it by feel.
What it does
Point your phone, touch once, and ALT Eyes takes a look and tells you, out loud. Each tool is a corner of the screen you can find by feel, or a big button.
Read
Labels, signs, menus, the departure board. On a can or a box it reads the barcode too: "Chickpeas in water, 400 grams, best before March 2028."
Scan
Finding a barcode is the hard part, so ALT Eyes does it by sound. Turn the product slowly: it ticks faster as the barcode comes into view and beeps when it has read it, then tells you exactly what you are holding.
Describe
What's in front of you, hazards first: "A counter ahead, about two meters. Two people queueing. The exit is to your left." Not a word more than you need.
Ask
Say a question out loud and ALT Eyes looks and answers. "Is there an empty seat?" "Which bus is this?" "Is the stove on?" Then follow up about the same view.
Money
Hold out your cash and hear each banknote and coin, and the total. Sort a wallet in a minute.
Document
Mail, bills, forms, receipts and prescriptions, read in the order that matters: who it's from, what it wants, the amount and the date. Doses are read exactly.
Remember
Save your own things by name: your keys, your mug, your medication. Afterward ALT Eyes calls them by name when it sees them. They're kept on your phone, nowhere else.
Find
Say what you are looking for, your keys, the door, an empty seat, and hear which way it is as you turn.
Shopping list
Add things by voice, or the moment a product runs out. It reads your list back, shares it as a message, and ticks things off as you find them in the store.
Zoom
Magnify small or distant print two or four times before you press, for the sign across the street or the fine print on a bottle.
Made to be used without looking
Every touchscreen app asks you to find a button on a flat sheet of glass. Try that with wet hands, in the dark, or without sight. ALT Eyes stops asking.
In ALT Eyes, the four corners of your phone are the buttons. A corner is the one place on a touchscreen your finger can always find, in a pocket, in the dark, without a screen reader and without looking.
- Tap a corner to Read, Describe, Ask, or hear the answer again.
- Touch and hold for a second action in the same corner. ALT Eyes says what it is before it runs.
- Slide away before lifting, and nothing happens.
- Make it yours: you decide what each corner does.
Together with the headset button and the screen lock, it means you can run ALT Eyes from start to finish without seeing it at all. It's how the app starts, and it's free. Prefer ordinary buttons? Switch in Settings.
- Hands-free, with Pro. The button on ordinary earbuds runs it: press once to Read, twice to Describe, three times to Ask. Hang the phone on a lanyard and lock the screen against stray touches.
- Works with your screen reader. Built for VoiceOver and TalkBack, with every control named. Turn ALT Eyes' own voice off and your screen reader reads the answers instead.
- Or by voice and keyboard. Voice Control, a Bluetooth keyboard or a switch all work.
It gets to know your things
Most apps like this describe the world as if for the first time, every time. ALT Eyes can remember what matters to you. It stays on your phone.
Your things, by name
Save your keys, your mug, your medication. From then on it says "your keys are here", not "a set of keys".
Your pantry and medicine
Every product you read is remembered with its expiry date. Ask "what's about to expire?" or leave a spoken note, "the evening one", and hear it next time.
What you avoid
Tell it once that you avoid nuts or gluten, and it warns you first whenever a label shows it.
Help from family
Send a private link, and a family member can photograph and name your things from their own phone.
Saving your own things is free. The pantry, diet alerts and family sharing are part of ALT Eyes Pro.
Getting started takes a minute
- Open alteyes.app on your phone. The first time, it explains itself and asks to use the camera.
- Point and touch a corner. The four corners of the screen are the buttons: top left reads, top right describes, bottom left listens to your question. You don't have to frame the shot well; ALT Eyes tells you if it needs a better look.
- Listen. The answer is spoken and shown in large type. Repeat plays it again; Stop cuts it short.
Add it to your Home Screen and it opens like any other app, full screen, with the camera ready. Prefer not to talk? Switch Ask and Remember to typing.
It all works on the phone you already have
Nearly everything ALT Eyes does runs on any iPhone or Android phone, in the browser. No particular model, no app store, no new device to buy.
That means reading, barcode scanning, describing, questions, finding, money, documents and zoom; the shopping list; your saved things and pantry; family sharing and people you know; and the hands-free controls: the headset button, the screen lock and corners you find by feel.
The main exception is depth. Measuring how far away something is needs the LiDAR sensor that only Pro models of iPhone and iPad have, together with the iPhone and iPad app. That covers two things: the warning tone for obstacles at head height, and spoken distance. If your phone has no LiDAR, you lose those two and nothing else.
The iPhone and iPad app, which is in testing, also adds Siri and Control Center buttons, so "Read with ALT Eyes" works from anywhere, and a fuller Findthat keeps track of where the thing is as you move and guides you with sound. Those work on any model.
Free, and staying free
Everything in this list is free for everyday use, with no account, and it isn't a trial. It covers the pantry, the mail and the bus:
- Read — labels, barcodes, signs, menus, mail.
- Scan — finds a barcode by sound and tells you exactly what you're holding.
- Describe — what's in front of you, hazards first.
- Ask — a question about the view, and follow-ups about the same view.
- Money — banknotes and coins, with the denomination and the total.
- Document — bills, forms, receipts and prescriptions read in a useful order, doses read exactly.
- Find — say what you're looking for and hear which way it is.
- Zoom — magnify small or distant print before you read it.
- Shopping list — add things by voice, or straight after reading a product. It reads back, and shares as a message.
- Remember — save a thing with a name and it's recognized by name afterward. Up to 20 things, kept on your device.
ALT Eyes Pro
Pro adds a memory and hands-free control, and it's what pays for the servers.
What you get
- A higher daily allowance — more than three times the free one, for people who use ALT Eyes all day.
- Memory without limits — save up to 500 of your own things instead of 20. ALT Eyes keeps a description of each one, so it can still call them by name however many you have.
- Pantry and medicine memory — every product you read is remembered with its expiry date, and you can leave a spoken note on it ("the evening one"). Ask "what's about to expire?" or "do I have chickpeas?" and hear the answer.
- Shopping, checked off as you go — in the store, read a product and ALT Eyes tells you it's on your list and ticks it off.
- Diet and allergy alerts — tell it once what you avoid, and it warns you first whenever a label shows it. It only warns about what it can read; no warning doesn't mean a product is safe.
- Family sharing — send a private link to a sighted family member. They photograph and name your things on their own phone, and the things appear in your ALT Eyes. They can add; they can't see what you've saved.
- People you know Beta — add friends and family who agree to it, and ALT Eyes tells you when one of them is in view. Faces are matched on your phone; no picture of them is kept or sent anywhere, and strangers are never identified.
- Hands-free — the button on your earbuds or headset runs ALT Eyes: press once to Read, twice to Describe, three times to Ask. Wear the phone on a lanyard with the camera facing out and lock the screen against stray touches.
Paid by card through Stripe, and renewed each year until you cancel. You get a key by email and on screen; enter it in ALT Eyes under “Enter a Pro key.” Cancel any time from the link in that email. One key works in the web app and in the iPhone and iPad app.
Organizations that support blind people — rehab agencies, schools, the VA — can license Pro for the people they serve. Write tosupport@alttext.org.
Private, on purpose
- Nothing is recorded. Each picture is analyzed and discarded. There is no library, no history, no "save."
- No account. You never give a name, an email or a password to use ALT Eyes.
- Your things stay yours. What you ask it to remember is stored on your phone, not on our servers.
- It never identifies strangers. ALT Eyes describes people; it doesn't name them. People you choose to add are matched on your phone, from numbers, not pictures.
- One exception, and it's yours to switch on. With family sharing, a photo and name a family member sends waits on our server until your phone collects it, and is then deleted there.
Questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Every tool in the free list is free for everyday use, with no account and no trial clock. ALT Eyes Pro adds a memory for your things and hands-free control, and it's what pays for the servers.
Do I need an iPhone?
No. Everything except depth runs in the browser on Android phones as well as iPhone. Only the obstacle warning tone and spoken distance need a Pro model of iPhone or iPad, because they use its LiDAR sensor.
Will it replace my cane or guide dog?
No, and we won't pretend otherwise. Your cane and your dog own the ground. ALT Eyes covers everything above it: reading, descriptions and questions.
I have some vision. Is it for me?
Yes. Most people who are legally blind have some sight, and reading small print or a sign across the street is exactly where ALT Eyes, and its zoom, help.
Can anyone see what I'm looking at?
No. Images are analyzed and discarded; nothing is kept on our servers or shared. Things you choose to remember are saved on your own phone. If you turn on family sharing, what a family member sends you waits on our server only until your phone collects it.
How accurate is it?
Good, and not perfect. It can misread a blurry label or a handwritten note. For anything where a mistake matters — a medication dose, a bank detail — check it a second way.
We're also exploring a wearable version of ALT Eyes.Read about the glasses project.