Cortis vs Google AI Edge Gallery: Two Approaches to On-Device AI

Google released AI Edge Gallery in early 2026, and we were genuinely excited. More people running language models locally on their phones is a good thing — for privacy, for the ecosystem, and honestly, for us. Competition pushes everyone to build better products.

But after spending time with both apps, we think they serve fundamentally different purposes. Here's an honest breakdown.

What Google AI Edge Gallery Does Well

Credit where it's due. Google's app is impressive:

• Free and open source — no subscriptions, no paywalls
• Agent Skills — a genuinely interesting approach to giving on-device models structured tool access
• Google's model optimization — they know how to squeeze performance out of mobile hardware
• Multiple model support — Gemma models optimized specifically for on-device inference

If you're a developer or AI enthusiast who wants to experiment with on-device models, AI Edge Gallery is a fantastic playground.

Where the Approaches Diverge

Here's the thing: AI Edge Gallery is a tech demo. A very good tech demo, but still a demo. It's designed to showcase what's possible with on-device inference. Cortis is designed to be a tool you actually use every day.

The difference shows up in system integration — or the lack of it.

Siri Integration Cortis: "Hey Siri, ask Cortis to summarize this article." You get a spoken answer without opening the app. We wrote a technical deep-dive on how we actually built headless on-device inference through Siri if you're curious about the architecture. AI Edge Gallery: No Siri support. You have to open the app, navigate to a chat, and type.

Shortcuts Automation Cortis has 17 App Intents that return string values. You can build automation chains: Safari gets page content, Cortis summarizes it, Notes saves it. All offline, all automatic. (Here's our walkthrough of five practical Shortcuts that run entirely offline.) AI Edge Gallery: No Shortcuts support.

Share Extension Select text in any app, tap Share, choose Cortis. Summarize, translate, rewrite — without leaving the app you're in. AI Edge Gallery: No Share Extension.

Conversation History & Spotlight Search Cortis indexes every conversation for Spotlight search. You can find past AI interactions the same way you find emails or messages. AI Edge Gallery: Conversations don't persist across sessions in a searchable way.

The Daily Use Gap

This isn't about which app runs inference faster or supports more models. It's about what happens after the initial "wow, it runs locally" moment.

Most people who download an on-device AI app use it enthusiastically for a day or two, then forget about it. The novelty of local inference isn't enough to change behavior. What changes behavior is integration — making AI accessible in the moments when you actually need it.

When you're reading an article and want a summary, you don't want to switch apps, copy text, open a chat, paste, and wait. You want to tap Share and get a summary. When you're driving and need a quick answer, you don't want to pull over and type. You want to ask Siri.

That's the gap we've focused on filling with Cortis.

What Cortis Doesn't Do (Yet)

We should be honest about our limitations too:

• No Agent Skills — Google's approach to giving models tool access is something we're watching closely
• Not open source — our codebase is proprietary, though we use open-source models (Llama, Gemma, Phi)
• Not free — Cortis has a free tier with a capable model, but larger models and advanced features require Pro
• Android integration is behind iOS — our Siri and Shortcuts integration doesn't have an equivalent depth on Android yet

Different Tools for Different People

If you want to tinker with on-device models, try different architectures, and experiment with agent capabilities, Google AI Edge Gallery is great for that.

If you want an on-device AI that integrates into your actual workflow — accessible through Siri, automatable through Shortcuts, available from any app via Share — that's what we built Cortis to be.

ChatGPT and Claude are still more capable for complex reasoning tasks, but they require internet and send your data to servers. Cortis and AI Edge Gallery both solve the privacy and offline problems — if you want the specifics on what each major AI app actually collects, stores, and uses for training, we've done the comparison. The difference between the on-device options is how deeply they integrate into your phone.

Try Both

Seriously. Download AI Edge Gallery and Cortis. Use both for a week. We think the integration difference will speak for itself, but we'd rather you find out firsthand than take our word for it.

Cortis is available on the App Store and Google Play. The Siri integration, Shortcuts, and Share Extension all work on the free tier.

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NERON LLC builds AI tools that respect your privacy. Cortis is our on-device AI assistant for iOS and Android.