Support — Alt Text Intelligence for iOS

Last updated: June 9, 2026

Alt Text Intelligence composes alt text for your photos entirely on device. If something is not working, this page has the most common questions and how to reach a human.

Reach a human: email luke@lukesteuber.com. Include your iOS version, device model, and what you were trying to do. Redacted screenshots help; never send anything you would not want public.

Common questions

"Why does the description vary between runs?"

On iOS 26+ with the on-device language model available, prose is composed by the model from Vision evidence, so wording can vary. When the model is unavailable, a deterministic rules-based composer takes over — same image, same output, every time. The chip under each result tells you which one wrote it, and "Why this output" cites the W3C WAI rules applied.

"The chat says it needs iOS 26."

The chat surface requires iOS 26 or later on a device that supports the system on-device language model, with the model downloaded. The alt-text composer itself works on iOS 17 and later, everywhere.

"I attached a photo in chat and the model said it can't see one."

The on-device model is text-only at the prompt layer; it reads images by calling a tool named vision_recon. If it answers without calling the tool, ask again more directly: "What's in this photo? Use vision_recon."

"I keep getting 'the model is busy.'"

The on-device language model rate-limits when multiple requests are in flight or the system is under load. Wait a moment and retry. This is different from "the model is still downloading," which means Apple's framework has not finished caching the model on your device.

"Will my history sync to my other devices?"

Not in version 1.0.0 — history is local to the device. iCloud sync may come later.

"Can I export my data?"

Alt text descriptions export in the Bluesky Alt Text Dataset format from History. Chat conversations are not exportable in 1.0.0.

"Is my data being collected?"

No. See the privacy policy — the short version is that there is nothing to collect: no accounts, no analytics, no network entitlements in this build.

Bug reports

1. Email luke@lukesteuber.com with the subject prefix [bug].
2. Include iOS version + device model.
3. One or two sentences on what went wrong.
4. The exact sequence to reproduce.
5. Optional: a screen recording.

Bug reports go directly to the developer's inbox. They are not shared with third parties or ingested into any analytics service.

Feature requests

Same address with the prefix [feature].

Open source acknowledgments

• Atkinson Hyperlegible © 2020 Braille Institute of America, Inc., under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
• WAI / W3C accessibility guidance, paraphrased and cited.
• Apple's system Vision and on-device language model APIs.

About

Alt Text Intelligence is built by Luke Steuber, speech-language pathologist and indie iOS developer, under Bridge City Lab LLC. The app is the iOS sibling of the Bluesky Alt Text Dataset and the alt-text tools at dr.eamer.dev/alt/.