AI companion & character chat apps,
checked.
Every app we cover, with a guide page that answers what people actually ask: is it free, is it safe, how do I cancel it, what carries over, and what we'd send a friend to instead. Steps come from each app's own help pages, with the date we read them. We build Bae, which is for adults, 18 and over; every guide says so.
26 apps · last change 2026-10-27 · What changed
Companions that remember
Built around one relationship and memory that holds across weeks.
Companions and character chat
Companion apps and big casts of characters, many made by users; memory is the usual weak point.
Adult-first
Unfiltered or explicit by design, behind an 18+ gate.
Gone or going
Shut down or unreachable. The guide pages say where people went.
Changes in the apps we cover.
Price changes, app-store removals, shutdowns and policy changes, newest first, each linked to where we read it.
2026-10-27 · PolyBuzz
PolyBuzz's iPhone app no longer loads in the App Store; Apple's own lookup returns nothing for it in the US, UK and Brazil. The web version and the Android app are still up.
2026-10-27 · Nomi
Nomi's Google Play listing no longer loads. The iPhone app and the web app are still up.
2026-10-27 · Emochi
Emochi's original iPhone app no longer loads in the App Store. "EMOCHI World" on iOS is a different company's app; Emochi itself is on the web and Android.
2026-08-24 · Charstar
Charstar's site stopped working, with no statement from the team. It still didn't load when we checked on October 27.
Source: charstar.ai (our check)
2025-10-27 · Character.AI
Character.AI announced it would end open-ended chat for users under 18, rolling out from November 24, 2025, with age assurance to follow.
2025-08-27 · Spicychat
Apple removed SpicyChat's iPhone app from the App Store; installed copies stopped working on September 25, 2025. Accounts and chats carried on on the web.
Source: SpicyChat docs: iOS app notice
About AI companion alternatives.
What are the best Replika alternatives?
Bae is our top pick for Replika alternatives — built for memory that holds across months with a six-stage relationship arc and real-photo selfies. After Bae, Character.AI for breadth — and, as provisional entries assessed from public information, Kindroid and Nomi, the two names ex-Replika threads recommend most. Full ranking on /alternatives/replika.
What are the best Character.AI alternatives?
Bae if you want hand-written archetypes and persistent memory; SpicyChat if you want unfiltered roleplay; Janitor AI (a provisional entry, assessed from public information) for user-generated breadth with looser filtering. See /alternatives/character-ai for the comparison table.
Why does Bae appear at the top of every alternatives list?
We build Bae, so we put a transparent Bae row in every list — clearly marked as our pick, with conservative numbers and honesty about what we haven't shipped (voice is on the roadmap, not in the product). You decide whether our row earns its placement.
How do you decide which alternatives to recommend?
Same 14-day test, same five questions: memory consistency, voice drift, honesty about what it is, what happens when you say something hard, and whether it knows when to stop talking. Scores roll up into per-platform ratings that drive the alternatives ranking. Platforms we haven't hands-on tested yet carry provisional scores assessed from public information, marked as such wherever they appear. The full ranked benchmark across every tested platform is in our annual report, The State of AI Companions 2026, at /report/2026.
Are these alternatives sponsored?
No. We don't take ad money from platforms we review, we don't accept comped premium accounts, and verdicts don't change because a platform asks. /methodology has the full disclosure.