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Gemma 4 iPhone app

Shares rank 18 of 27 local LLM runners by recommenders

Free app that runs Google's Gemma 4 model on iPhone with easy setup and no sign-in. Critics report crashes and slowdowns in long chats.

Free app that runs Google's Gemma 4 model on iPhone with easy setup and no sign-in. Critics report crashes and slowdowns in long chats.

13 people gave an opinion

recommend it
7
criticize it
6
approval share
54%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 2 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: not recommended
  4. February 2026: not recommended
  5. March 2026: not recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: not recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: not recommended
  10. August 2026: not recommended
  11. September 2026: not recommended
  12. October 2026: not recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
  • 1.1 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Easy install and model download

    “installs as easily as Chrome, downloads a model as easily as it could be”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Gemma 4 12B: A unified, encoder-free multimodal model”

    “easiest setup than anything else i've tried”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”
  • Shows local AI's potential and tool use

    “this app lowers the barrier to entry significantly and provides a glimpse into what’s possible locally, on device”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

    “the UX is too dumbed down but knowing there is a run_js tool there is a lot that can be done here”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Crashes on startup or after chats

    “Crashes for me on a couple of different iDevices after only a few 2-3 chats.”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

    “downloading and running the app and it crashing on startup”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”
  • Google privacy policy and sign-in concerns

    “When I saw it wants me to "agree" to Google's "privacy policy", I deleted the app on the spot.”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

    “The description says it's private, but the legalese it makes you agree to makes no promise.”

    Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

Other local LLM runners people recommend

The four most recommended other local LLM runners, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Gemma 4 iPhone app compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
llama.cpp47110981%131 yr4 ownersApproved
Ollama35024759%121.5 yrs8 owners—
LM Studio2177475%123 yrs4 ownersApproved
DS4 by antirez1092084%71 mo3 ownersApproved
Gemma 4 iPhone appThis page7654%2——
See all 27 local LLM runners, ranked

What people said

14 of the 15 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“installs as easily as Chrome, downloads a model as easily as it could be”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Gemma 4 12B: A unified, encoder-free multimodal model”

“They still don’t render the markdown (or LaTeX) it outputs.”

CriticizesComment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Google Gemma 4 Runs Natively on iPhone with Full Offline AI Inference”

“it is super fast on my 16 Plus, but with longer messages it can slow down a LOT”

MixedComment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Google Gemma 4 Runs Natively on iPhone with Full Offline AI Inference”

“yet don't include the IOS source, sneaky”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“this app lowers the barrier to entry significantly and provides a glimpse into what’s possible locally, on device”

RecommendsComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“When I saw it wants me to "agree" to Google's "privacy policy", I deleted the app on the spot.”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“the UX is too dumbed down but knowing there is a run_js tool there is a lot that can be done here”

MixedComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“downloading and running the app and it crashing on startup”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“easiest setup than anything else i've tried”

RecommendsComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“Crashes for me on a couple of different iDevices after only a few 2-3 chats.”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“The description says it's private, but the legalese it makes you agree to makes no promise.”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“This is fun, FYI you don’t have to sign in/up with a Google account.”

RecommendsComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“It's completely vibe coded, doesn't even run on my Mac”

CriticizesComment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

“The scrolling is also unusable during generation.”

CriticizesComment from 5 Apr 2026 in “Gemma 4 on iPhone”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.