Ari Uses Apple Models

Ari Helper, an iPhone, iPad, and Mac chat app, has added support for Apple’s Foundation Models, letting users talk to Apple’s built-in language model inside the app. (wemiller.com) (developer.apple.com) Ari’s website says the app already supports local on-device models, Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, xAI, and Amazon Web Services Bedrock, and syncs across Apple devices with a one-time purchase. (wemiller.com) Apple’s Foundation Models framework gives developers access to the on-device large language model behind Apple Intelligence on iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, Mac Catalyst 26, and visionOS 26. (developer.apple.com) In plain terms, that framework lets an app ask Apple’s model to write text, summarize, extract information, or return structured data, and it can also call app-defined tools to complete tasks. (developer.apple.com 1) (developer.apple.com 2) Apple says these features run with the on-device model at the core of Apple Intelligence, work offline, and do not add per-token inference costs for developers using the framework. (apple.com 1) (apple.com 2) That changes what an app like Ari can offer on Apple hardware: instead of routing every chat to OpenAI or Anthropic, it can use Apple’s own model for some requests and keep those interactions on the device. (wemiller.com) (developer.apple.com) Apple has been pushing the framework as a way for third-party apps to add private, offline text features, and in September 2025 it highlighted apps including SmartGym, Stoic, and VLLO that had already shipped Foundation Models features. (apple.com) The framework is not universal across older Apple software: Apple’s documentation lists Foundation Models support starting at version 26 across Apple’s operating systems, and it requires Apple Intelligence to be turned on. (developer.apple.com) For Ari, the update fits the app’s pitch as a hub for many model providers at once. Adding Apple’s model means one more option in that stack, with Apple handling the model and the device handling the inference. (wemiller.com) (developer.apple.com)