While it may not quite be an all-knowing, all-seeing companion, AI has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years. AI chatbots have recently come into the spotlight, thanks largely to the emergence of ChatGPT -- a chatbot from OpenAI, the creators of the incredible DALL-E 2 AI image generator.
AI chatbots are a lot of fun to play with, and they can create everything from poetry to new episodes of long-canceled TV shows. But if you're looking to try out ChatGPT on your iPhone or Android phone, then bad luck: there's no official ChatGPT app for either platform. However, there is a way to access ChatGPT on your smartphone, and there are some other similar apps you can play with too.
How to use ChatGPT on your iPhone or Android phone
As mentioned, there's no official ChatGPT app on smartphones. You can access the ChatGPT website through your internet browser instead.
Step 1: Head to the OpenAI website.
Step 2: If it's your first time here, sign up for an account. Otherwise, log in.
Step 3: If you're signing up, you'll need to use a phone number to authenticate your account, so make sure you have one to hand. Keep in mind you can't use a virtual phone number (VoIP).
Step 4: Once signed up or logged in, get started by typing a question. The homepage offers some suggestions, but feel free to explore and even ask ChatGPT what it can do.
The best ChatGPT iPhone apps
While ChatGPT may not be available on the App Store, there's no shortage of apps that leverage ChatGPT's excellent capabilities. Here are some of the best.
Genie - AI Chatbot
Genie is one of the strongest iOS ChatGPT options because, well, it's absolutely laden down with features. You can ask it to do almost anything, from identifying pictures, writing anything you ask it to, and even summarizing PDF files or web pages. It's an incredible piece of tech, and it's one of the few to have access to GPT-4, giving it those advanced image and file recognition abilities.
Unfortunately, that means it doesn't come cheap. Free users only get five questions (known as "wishes") per day. If you want more than that, you're going to need to subscribe. Those subscriptions don't come cheap either, so if you're wanting more than five wishes a day, you're going to have to pay for them.
ChatOn - AI Chatbot Assistant
ChatOn is a little basic when compared to some other options, and it eschews some of the ChatGPT mainstays you'll see on other apps — like the dark, neon color schemes and scrolling text effect — but it delivers in features. ChatOn can do your usual chatbot duties, but it can also pretend to be a sarcastic buddy, create inspirational quotes, and any one of a number of different options.
However, it doesn't come completely free, and unlimited use will cost you, with plans starting from $7 a month. It's not quite as polished as other apps, and we found some of the modes not to work particularly well, but it's still a fun option and cheaper than similar apps.
Perplexity - Ask Anything
Perplexity is one we've covered ourselves, and it's probably our favorite of the ChatGPT options on iPhone. Not only is it extremely simple to use — just download and go, no need to sign in — but it also tells you where it pulled the information from, and, most importantly, it's completely free as well. Yes, there's no subscription cost at all, which puts it head and shoulders above so many other iOS ChatGPT apps.
- 1. Nova
- 2. ChatSonic
The best ChatGPT Android apps
As with the iPhone above, the Google Play Store has no official ChatGPT app. However, some apps offer similar abilities, and most use the ChatGPT architecture anyway. Here are some good Android alternatives to play with:
Nova - ChatGPT AI Chatbot
It's ChatGPT, but with a prettier interface and available in an app form. That's largely all that needs to be said about it, but we'd be lying if we didn't mention that it does it very well. The neon color scheme fits the futuristic aspect of AI chatbots, and the scrolling appearance of text makes it feel like you're chatting with a real person. We found it relatively fast and reliable, though some reviews complain of issues with crashing on more complex questions.
Unfortunately, it does come with a subscription for unlimited access. A subscription starts from $8 a month and gets you unlimited questions and answers, access to the GPT-3.5 Turbo model, and chat history.
ChatSonic: Super ChatGPT App
ChatSonic may be powered by ChatGPT, but it claims to be the only GPT-powered chatbot to surpass its benefactor. Not only does it link up to ChatGPT for test-based inquiries, but it also generates images through DALL-E and can take part in a spoken conversation like Google Assistant. Bringing these separate services together into a single service is likely the future of AI, but ChatSonic has beaten everyone to the punch.
Like Nova above, though, ChatSonic has limitations. You're limited to a certain number of words in questions and answers per month, and you'll need to pay to get a higher word number. The subscription starts at $10 per month for 40,000 words, and it'll get pretty expensive if you're wanting more than that. Even worse, using it during peak times can cost double the words. So while ChatSonic can do a lot, it asks a lot too.
Bing - Your AI copilot
Okay, so this one isn't ChatGPT-powered — but it's worth downloading and playing with, especially if you're butting up against the free limitations of other apps. Bing, the search engine no one uses, now comes with an AI chatbot, and it has some fun additions you won't find on ChatGPT. For instance, you can set it to be more creative, more precise, or a balanced mix between the two. As a result, you can get some wacky answers or some more accurate ones. You'll need to sign in to a Microsoft account and join a waitlist to access Bing's AI capabilities, but we found we were already allowed access when we signed in.
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