Shiuli

Shiuli is a new utility for iPhone and iPad (from the creators of longtime favorite LookUp) that aims to solve a common problem: adding alt text descriptions to images shared online. In my experience, most people don’t add alt text to images on social media not because they don’t care about accessibility, but because writing them takes time and effort – which is something I’m guilty of, too. Shiuli uses AI to generate readable descriptions for your photos that you can then edit to match your style before copying them to Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, or wherever else you’re posting. What I find most interesting about Shiuli is that you don’t have to open the app at all; it integrates with Shortcuts, Visual Intelligence, and the share sheet, so you can get image descriptions from anywhere on iOS or iPadOS. This is one of the good uses of generative AI that can make the web a better place for everyone, and I’m going to incorporate this app into my workflow.