Hey everyone! How many of you use PiccyBot (an app that lets you recognize videos, photos and PDFs for the blind)? Well, I’m a totally blind blogger and I rely a lot on this app. I even considered buying a premium version at some point, but it’s been broken for over 2 weeks.now! It neither loads a video completely through the “share” menu in YouTube/Photos app (just shows me the “try again” button), nor does it select the video from the video photo roll. Most often though, it displays “unable to process the video.” I tried doing this with multiple videos shared from YouTube and TikTok, as well as my photo roll. And yeah, I’m using an iPhone 13 with IOS 26.5 on board and I updated PiccyBot to the latest version today, but it won’t work either. The grossest part here is that I emailed their support service over a week ago and nobody even bothered to respond. Guess it’s 2026 when most people don’t want to take any responsibilities, even if their product is commercialized …. I just hoped maybe we can collectively email them and it would help. Also, I wrote a 1-star review in the Appstore today and I can’t find it in the most recent one. I don’t know whether it’s because I can’t see my own reviews on the Appstore or because the developers just removed my review
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broken here as well
In my case, I was able to get it to process a video on my phone, but with photos, it only ever says try again. I'm honestly surprised that this is the first time someone is mentioning this issue here on Applevis. I hope everything gets fixed soon. I do have the premium version of the app.
No problems for me
I haven't experienced any issues with Piccybot recently and after reading this post I checked it with an image I took from Piccybot and also with a photo from my photo library and both worked very well and processing speed was also pretty fast, around 2-3 seconds.
I have lifetime subscription, so I can choose a model. Currently I use Grok 4.1. The issue sounds a bit like some model specific issue, i.e. some model provider is down or there was an API change or something like that. Those with a premium subscription could try to choose a different model and see whether that helps or not.
I also note that I have an iPhone that is pre-iOS 26, i.e. not compatible with that OS version. My Piccybot is on version 3.2, which seems to be the latest.
Every current iPhone now is capable of updating iOS 26
My iPhone now is updating iOS 26 the only way that wouldn’t happen is if you have an iPhone that’s like an iPhone like 12 or 13 or something like that I think the oldest supported phone right now he’s like 05 or something I think so should be capable of running iOS 26 for pixie. Well I’ve never used it so I don’t know might be happening with it situation will get resolved pretty soon. To the OP, you have a good point. It does seem like a lot of times in 2026 don’t wanna take responsibility for the blame somebody else not everybody but a lot. I’ve definitely seen that kind of attitude before too.
No issues here
The app seems to be working fine for me too. I’m on premium, and mostly using Mistral AI’s model, though occasionally others.
iPhone Air running iOS 26.5
I'll have to try again
I thought it was a model issue too when I started having issues with Piccybot, but changing models made no difference; it's just the retry button every time, and I bought the lifetime version of the app when it was first released. I haven't tried in a few days, so maybe it has started working again.
In my case I care mostly about videos
I have a few different apps to recognize photos, but with videos the situation gets harder. The support team still haven’t answered me and I don’t think they ever will :(
Please note:
It isn’t a team, it’s 1 guy and normally he is pretty good on getting back to folks. Remember, he is human and you never know if he’s on vacation, if there’s something in the family going on, some sort of emergency that’s personal, he’s also in a different time zone so sometimes the time zone can be a bit of a problem. There could also be a There can also be an issue with the email server, I know I’ve had that issue before. Let’s not jump to the conclusion that he doesn’t care because he does. I’m sure he will get back to you eventually. Did you try messaging him on FB?
Try Gemini
Google Gemini can actually analyze videos for you and give you a detailed description. To do this, first, open Google Gemini, then tap the Add Attachment button in the bottom left. When the pop-up menu appears, choose Photos and select a video from the photo gallery, and ask Gemini to give you a detailed description of the video. You can also do it with YouTube videos by opening the YouTube app, choosing the video you want to share, tapping the Share button, and when the menu appears, tapping Copy Link. You can then paste the link into Gemini and ask it to give you a detailed description of the video.
Guess it’s not free and I have to pay for Gemini?
Isn't it also slower?
Contact me with details
I am the developer of PiccyBot and it should all be working fine now. There was a certificate issue which caused an issue, but that was fixed within a day, so if you have the latest version you should be good.
PiccyBot does use Google Firebase to store model settings. Google has in the past been blocking certain providers and certain countries, so using a VPN may help out if it really doesn't work for you.
Please let me know if it still gives issues? Thanks!
It just worked with my 7-second video!
Hello! Now it works with my 7-sec video, any video for the past 2 weeks for me! I wish there would be a convenient support service (at least for the premium users) if I want to quickly report a bug / drop a suggestion, because I have a suggestion that could litterally be a revolution for all the blind bloggers in the world..,..
All seems well now
I tried getting a picture described a day or two ago, and everything seems to be back to normal. Super thankful for that.