How to Get Private AI on Your iPhone
Private AI is an assistant that keeps your conversations off of company servers entirely. Here's what that actually means, and how to find and set one up on an iPhone.
What "private AI" means on a phone
Most AI apps are, at their core, a window into a company's servers — you type a message, it's sent off to be processed, and often stored or logged along the way. A truly private AI app is different: it runs the model directly on your iPhone, so there's no server for your conversation to pass through in the first place. That's also what makes it local AI.
Why most AI apps aren't private
Accounts and servers
Signing up for an AI app usually means creating an account tied to your email, and every message you send afterward is processed on that company's infrastructure. Even with a reasonable privacy policy, your data still has to leave your device to get an answer.
Chat logs and training data
Some AI companies use conversations to improve future models unless you specifically opt out, and many retain chat history on their servers by default for as long as your account exists. That's a reasonable tradeoff for some tools, but it's the opposite of privacy by design.
What true privacy on iPhone looks like
- No account — nothing tied to your identity or email.
- No data leaving your device — the model runs locally, so there's nothing to transmit.
- No tracking — no analytics SDKs or third-party trackers watching what you type.
- No login wall — you can open the app and start using it immediately.
How to check if an AI app is actually private
"Private" gets used loosely in app marketing, so it's worth checking for yourself:
- Read the privacy policy — look for whether it says data is collected, stored, or transmitted at all.
- Look for language like "runs on-device" or "works offline," which usually signals a local AI architecture rather than a cloud wrapper.
- Check whether the app requires an account or login before you can use it.
- Try turning on airplane mode. If the assistant still responds, the conversation isn't going anywhere.
Setting up a private AI assistant on iPhone
Cloak is a private AI assistant that runs entirely on your iPhone. Setup takes three steps:
- Download Cloak from the App Store.
- Open it once on Wi-Fi so it can download its AI model — this happens one time.
- From then on, chat anywhere. No account, no login, no internet connection required.
You can also personalize how the assistant responds and how the app looks, all from a local settings screen — no account required to save your preferences.
Curious what's actually happening on the device? Read how Cloak works, or compare it directly with cloud tools in ChatGPT vs. local AI.
Get private AI on your iPhone
Cloak is a private AI assistant that runs entirely on your iPhone — no account, no cloud, no tracking.
