What changed in AI companions
Companion apps mutate constantly: prices rise quietly, models get swapped under your companion's personality, policies reverse overnight. Nobody keeps the record, so users find out the hard way. This page is the record: every change we track, dated and sourced, newest first.
October 2026
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Character AI legal
31 states and DC object to the rules for selling Character AI
On October 23, 2026, the objection deadline, 31 states and the District of Columbia filed a joint objection to Character AI's bidding procedures (case 26-11603, docket no. 66). They ask the court to refuse the procedures at the October 30 hearing or change them: at least 21 more days for rival bids, a lower minimum rival bid (21.7 million dollars as proposed; they say any bid above about 15.2 million would leave the company better off), one closing deadline for every bidder, Disney's break-up fee of up to 700,000 dollars refused or cut, no early finding that the September deal with Disney was made in good faith, and a plain-language sale notice posted on the Character AI platform itself. The filing cites about 12 million monthly active users and 18 remaining full-time staff.
Source: cases.stretto.com/public/x936/14939/PLEA... · cases.stretto.com/chartech
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Chai AI shutdown
Chai's iPhone app leaves the App Store
Chai's App Store listing (CHAI: Social AI Platform- Chat, id1544750895, sold by Chai Research Corp.) was live in the US, UK, Canada and Australia at 11:27 a.m. Eastern on October 22, 2026; by 5:47 p.m. the UK, Canadian and Australian storefronts returned no listing, and by 8 p.m. the US page returned Not Found and ten more storefronts were empty. At 5:36 p.m. Chai's founder posted on r/ChaiApp that the app is unavailable to download while Chai works on improving its Apple app, and that anyone who already has it installed is unaffected. No return date was given. The Android app is still on Google Play.
Source: www.reddit.com/r/ChaiApp/comments/1xcvkq... · apps.apple.com/us/app/chai-social-ai-pla... · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co...
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Chai AI pricing
Chai's founder says the app will offer less unlimited chat and more pieces
On October 21, 2026 Chai's founder, answering a question on Chai's subreddit about the Diamond plan, wrote that Diamond gives an ad-free experience and a weekly grant of blue pieces to spend on video, image and text generation, and that "moving forward CHAI will offer less unlimited chat experience, and more piece based experience." It came as a new wave of users reported that the daily check-in and the ads that pay pieces had gone; Chai has not commented on those reports, and the day before the founder called a new daily reward "an AB test".
Source: www.reddit.com/r/ChaiApp/comments/1xc0u5... · www.reddit.com/r/ChaiApp/comments/1xavr7...
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PolyBuzz pricing
PolyBuzz's web membership page drops Basic and sells Ultimate by the week
On October 20, 2026, PolyBuzz's membership page, read from the US while logged out, offered two plans where on October 12 it had three. Basic, $9.90 a month, was gone. Ultimate, $29.90 a month on October 12, now opens on a first week for $14.90, shown against a struck-through $49.80 with a countdown, beside a yearly plan still at $299. Premium stays at $19.90 a month or $199 a year. We have not yet checked whether the Android app's paywall changed too.
Source: www.polybuzz.ai/membership
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Kupid AI company
Kupid AI's terms and privacy policy stop naming any company
On October 20, 2026, Kupid AI's terms changed to say payments are processed by Kupid AI, and its privacy policy is now issued on behalf of Kupid AI, where since October 19 both had named CommerceCentral Services INC. The site footer reads only Kupid AI. No page gives an address or country of registration, and the terms stay under Maltese law. It is the fourth change to the company named on these pages in October.
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Chai AI policy
Chai says it now checks users' age through Persona, by selfie or photo ID
By October 19, 2026 Chai's Safety Center added an Age Assurance section: age checks are provided by Persona, a third-party identity verification provider, using a quick selfie to estimate whether a user is over 18 or a government-issued photo ID. The page now says minors cannot use Chai. It does not say whether every user is checked or only users in some regions. Until October 18 the page relied on the app stores' 18+ rating and named no age-check provider.
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Kupid AI company
Kupid AI's terms and privacy policy name CommerceCentral Services INC again
By October 19, 2026, Kupid AI's privacy policy again named CommerceCentral Services INC as the site's owner and its terms named it as payment processor, replacing SNB Tech, which the pages had named since October 10. The site footer carries the same name. No page gives an address or country of registration, and the terms stay under Maltese law. It is the third change of company name on these pages in October.
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Chai AI pricing
Chai's app offers Ruby and Diamond plans with weekly pieces in place of Premium and Ultra
On October 18, 2026 Chai's Android app (0.4.430) offered our US test account two plans, Ruby at $9.99 a week or $134.99 a year with 900 blue pieces a week, and Diamond at $19.99 a week or $254.99 a year with 1,800 blue pieces a week, where on October 14 the same account saw Premium and Ultra. Premium had listed unlimited messages; the new plans list a weekly pieces allowance, all models, no ads and unlimited bots, and showed no free trial. The profile now separates red pieces, earned or bought, from blue pieces refreshed weekly with a subscription. Chai's founder called the new tier an A/B test on October 6. The 70-piece daily check-in still paid.
Source: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co... · www.reddit.com/r/ChaiApp/comments/1wzf5w...
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Kindroid feature
Kindroid makes unprompted selfies and calls opt-in and hides suggestive shared Kins
On October 17, 2026, Kindroid's founder announced that messages, calls and reminders a user asks for now arrive at the requested time, up to a week ahead, and that a Kin follows through on what it said it would do; after 3 unanswered contacts it still stops until the user writes back. Unprompted selfies and calls during a chat, previously on for everyone, are now off unless the user turns on a new Act on its own option. Suggestive shared Kins and Social posts are now hidden by default unless Show Suggestive Content is turned on on the website, and shared listings built around a sexual premise are unlisted.
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Nomi.ai shutdown
Nomi's Android app is off Google Play again for six days, then returns
Nomi's Google Play listing (Nomi: AI Companion with a Soul, from Nomi.ai), last updated October 9, returned Not Found on October 16, 2026 from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, India and Germany. Early that day Nomi's CEO confirmed on r/NomiAI that it had just happened, blamed the same problem as in September (Google's reviewers unable to log in with Google's own sign-in), and said he expects the app back sometime the following week. The iPhone app and nomi.ai were unaffected. On October 21 he wrote that his best guess was that week or the next, and on October 22 the listing was live again in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India, with its last update dated October 17; Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands still returned Not Found.
Source: www.reddit.com/r/NomiAI/comments/1x771vc... · www.reddit.com/r/NomiAI/comments/1xbwyuy... · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai...
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Character AI legal
Garcia v. Character AI is dismissed with prejudice after the settlement is signed
On October 15, 2026 Megan Garcia's lawyers filed a notice voluntarily dismissing her Florida suit against Character Technologies, its founders Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, and Google with prejudice (M.D. Fla. 6:24-cv-01903, Doc. 278). The notice says it follows the signing of the settlement agreement and receipt of all required court approvals. The terms were not disclosed. The case was the first family lawsuit against the company and the first of the five January 2026 settlements to close.
Source: www.courtlistener.com/docket/69300919/ga... · storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco...
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PolyBuzz shutdown
PolyBuzz's iPhone app disappears from the App Store
PolyBuzz's App Store listing (PolyBuzz: Chat with Characters, id6449190344, sold by Cloud Whale Interactive Technology LLC) was live in the US, UK, Canada and Australia at 5:50 p.m. Eastern on October 14, 2026 and returned no listing in any of them at 11:11 a.m. on October 15; the US App Store page returns Not Found. It was also missing in seven other countries we tried, with no relisting under another name. Neither PolyBuzz nor Apple has said why. The Android app is still on Google Play and polybuzz.ai still works.
Source: apps.apple.com/us/app/polybuzz-chat-with... · itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=6449190344&co... · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai...
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Chai AI pricing
Chai's 70-piece daily check-in returns in Android app 0.4.430
In our US test account on October 14, 2026, the newest Chai Android app (0.4.430, published October 12) showed the Daily Check-In again at 70 pieces a day, 490 for seven days, with a 5-piece rewarded ad listed beside it; checking in added 70 pieces. The check-in had been missing from version 0.4.429 in our October 11 check.
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Character AI company
Disney to hire about 65 Character AI staff at an estimated $60 million a year
The Disney agreement filed with Character AI's bidding procedures motion on October 13, 2026 (case 26-11603, docket no. 15, exhibit 2, page 118) says Disney will offer jobs to up to six key employees, including the chief executive, and at least 60 others. Based on about 65 of them, Disney estimates their total pay at about $60 million a year, plus a $30 million retention pool paid on the first and second anniversaries of the deal; it puts pay and retention over three years at about $180 million.
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Character AI company
Character AI proposes its sale timetable: bids by November 20, sale hearing November 24
In its bidding procedures motion filed October 13, 2026 (case 26-11603, docket no. 15), Character Technologies proposed a sale objection deadline of November 13, a bid deadline of November 20 at 5 p.m. ET, an auction on November 23 if rival qualifying bids arrive, and a court hearing to approve the sale on November 24. Disney's stalking horse agreement must close by December 17, 2026. The dates need the court's approval.
Source: cases.stretto.com/public/x936/14939/PLEA... · cases.stretto.com/chartech
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Character AI company
Character AI files for Chapter 11 to sell the company
On October 12, 2026, Character Technologies filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (case 26-11603) to run a court-supervised sale of all or substantially all of its assets. The company says the platform stays up, subscriptions remain active with billing unchanged, and it expects the sale to finish by late November or early December 2026; if no buyer offers to keep the platform running, it will be wound down. Press reports of the filings say Disney made the first bid, $20 million for a non-exclusive license to some of its intellectual property and certain claims.
Source: blog.character.ai/an-update-on-character... · cases.stretto.com/chartech · thenextweb.com/news/character-ai-files-f...
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Kindroid feature
Kindroid adds the Vignette selfie model; daily rewards now subscriber-only
On October 12, 2026, Kindroid's founder announced Vignette, a selfie model that follows prompts more closely and keeps faces closer to a Kin's avatar than Atelier did, at the same price. It is now the Latest model, so Kins set to Latest switch automatically; Atelier and older models stay selectable. Avatar generation moved to a new engine from the same model family, and long-term memory retrieval and image understanding were upgraded. Daily rewards are now for subscribers only and pay more across the week: days 4 to 7 can include audio credits, and day 7 offers a 100-selfie or a 50,000-audio-credit jackpot.
Source: www.reddit.com/r/KindroidAI/comments/1x4... · kindroid.ai/v2/docs/update-log/
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Kupid AI company
Kupid AI's terms and privacy policy now name SNB Tech
By October 10, 2026, Kupid AI's privacy policy named SNB Tech as the site's owner and its terms named it as payment processor, three days after both pages had switched to CommerceCentral Services INC. The site footer carries the same name. No page gives SNB Tech's address or country of registration, and the terms stay under Maltese law. Until October 7 the pages named SNB Technologies LTD of Nicosia, Cyprus.
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Character AI legal
Kentucky files an unredacted version of its Character AI lawsuit
Reuters reported on October 8, 2026 that Kentucky's Attorney General had filed an unredacted version of the January 2026 suit against Character Technologies in Franklin Circuit Court. It is the same case, not a new one. The newly visible passages quote 2025 chats in which, the state alleges, characters encouraged users to cut or starve themselves. Character AI did not immediately comment.
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Kupid AI company
Kupid AI's terms and privacy policy name a new company, CommerceCentral Services INC
By October 7, 2026, Kupid AI's privacy policy named CommerceCentral Services INC as the site's owner and its terms named it as payment processor, replacing SNB Technologies LTD of Nicosia, Cyprus. The terms now fall under Maltese law instead of Cypriot law. Neither page gives the new company's address or country of registration.
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Chai AI pricing
Chai tests a new ad-free subscription tier with monthly pieces
On October 6, 2026, Chai's founder said on the app's subreddit that a new subscription tier some users were seeing, with plans users called Ruby and Diamond, is an A/B test: an ad-free plan with monthly pieces for people who don't subscribe. He said some existing subscribers may be better off buying pieces as needed. What users see can differ by account and region.
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Chai AI pricing
Chai gives every user 70 free pieces a day after four days of complaints
On October 6, 2026, Chai's founder said on the app's subreddit that an update the day before had given every user 20 pieces per daily check-in and 5 pieces per rewarded ad, and that the daily check-in would now pay all users 70 pieces, about 70 messages on the standard model. Free pieces had stopped for many accounts on October 2.
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Kindroid feature
Kindroid releases V4 voice and upgrades live video, both at higher credit rates
On October 5, 2026, Kindroid made V4 and V4 Fast voices generally available, with new Kins starting on V4 Fast, at 1.75x the audio credits of V2 (V3 stays at 1.5x). Live video in calls was upgraded so a Kin gestures and reacts during the conversation, at higher resolution; its rate rose from 2,000 to about 2,500 audio credits a minute at Standard quality and from 4,000 to about 4,500 at Premium, on top of the 400-credit-a-minute call charge and voice charges. Live video still requires a subscription. The same update added journal suggestions in Learned Context, exact-time proactive actions and a font picker.
Source: kindroid.ai/v2/docs/update-log/ · kindroid.ai/v2/docs/subscriptions/
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Chai AI pricing
Chai's free daily pieces stop for many accounts; new US accounts get a 7-day check-in
From the evening of October 2, 2026, Chai users reported that the daily check-in and rewarded ads, the two ways free accounts earned pieces, had disappeared. Since September every Chai message costs pieces (1 on plus, 2 on ULTRA). In our October 4 checks in the Android app, a new account on a UK Google Play account had 0 pieces, no free way to earn more, and its first message brought up a prompt to buy pieces; a new account on a US Play account the same day got a daily check-in worth 700 pieces over 7 days. Chai has not announced the change; in September its founder had promised free pieces every day.
Source: www.reddit.com/r/ChaiApp/comments/1wanps... · www.reddit.com/r/ChaiApp/comments/1wsic0... · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co...
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Kindroid pricing
Kindroid retires its unlimited free Lite model
On October 1, 2026, Kindroid ended its permanent free tier, which gave unlimited text on Lite, a smaller version of its model. New accounts now get a one-time preview of 50 interactions on the flagship model (15 in regions Kindroid says have much higher account abuse), two Kindroids, 5,000 audio characters and up to five selfies. After that the account is read-only until the user starts a three-day trial, which needs a payment method and converts to a subscription unless cancelled. Existing Lite users got 50 final flagship interactions. Kindroid announced the change in its August 18 update log.
Source: kindroid.ai/v2/docs/update-log/ · kindroid.ai/v2/docs/subscriptions/
September 2026
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Replika pricing
Replika's paywall now sells two yearly plans, Plus and Max
On September 30, 2026, Replika's in-app paywall on iPhone and Android (US) offered two plans, both billed yearly: Plus at $79.99 and Max at $89.99, with no monthly option. Replika's help center (Choosing a Subscription) still describes Free, Pro, Ultra and Platinum and gives no prices. This entry replaces one that said Platinum had replaced Ultra: that was read from the App Store's in-app purchase list, which shows every product an app has ever created rather than what it sells today.
Source: help.replika.com/hc/en-us/articles/39551... · apps.apple.com/us/app/replika-ai-compani... · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai...
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Character AI model
Character AI makes PipSqueak 3 the free default and adds ShortSqueak
On September 28, 2026, Character AI rolled out two free chat styles: PipSqueak 3, which it says is smarter and keeps better track of a chat, and ShortSqueak, for short replies and quick banter. New chats start on PipSqueak 3. PipSqueak 2 and Rawr moved to a Legacy menu and still work, and existing chats keep their style. Free users get unlimited messages on both new styles once rollout finishes; the same post formally announced the (c.ai) lite plan.
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Nomi.ai shutdown
Nomi's Android app is off Google Play for ten days, then returns
Nomi's Google Play listing (Nomi: AI Companion with a Soul, from Nomi.ai) was live when we checked it on September 24, 2026 and returned Not Found from the US on September 28. On September 25 Nomi's CEO wrote on r/NomiAI that Google's reviewers lost access to a Nomi test account and took the app down before Nomi could fix it. On the evening of October 5 he posted that the app was back after Nomi worked with Google to resolve the review issue. On October 6 the listing was live in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India but still returned Not Found in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. A lookalike called Nomi AI: Chat, Play, Connect is from a different developer and is not Nomi.
Source: www.reddit.com/r/NomiAI/comments/1wq2rs4... · www.reddit.com/r/NomiAI/comments/1wyqdwd... · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ai...
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Anima company
Anima's site starts steering users to GetHoney, a separate explicit app
Every page on myanima.ai now opens with a prompt: Anima is still here, but its makers have built a more advanced experience, GetHoney, with more characters, more features and more personalisation. Anima itself keeps running: its Android app is still listed (last updated June 24, 2026) and a Continue to Anima button closes the prompt. GetHoney (get-honey.today) is a web-only adult companion site run by Svitlo Limited of Nicosia, Cyprus, a different company name from Anima's LABANE CORP.
Source: myanima.ai/ · get-honey.today/ · play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=an...
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Avatar.One shutdown
Avatar.One is gone: its domain now redirects to a private-capital platform
www.avatar.one now redirects to fair.club ("FAIR | Where Private Capital Forms"). The last archived copy of the working 3D companion site is from March 15, 2026, so it closed some time after mid-March; September 24 is when we confirmed it.
Source: www.avatar.one/ · web.archive.org/web/2026/www.avatar.one/
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CrushOn AI pricing
CrushOn AI retires its Deluxe tier
CrushOn AI's official pricing page now marks its Deluxe membership as Retired (it was previously listed at $49.99/mo for unlimited messages). The live paid ladder is Standard $5.99/mo, Premium $14.99/mo, Luxe $39.99/mo, Elite $89.99/mo and Imperial $199.99/mo, plus a separate $39.99/mo Pro Models add-on that is not a membership tier. The Android app's paywall showed the same monthly prices on September 25, 2026.
Source: crushon.ai/pricing
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HeraHaven company
HeraHaven moves to herahaven.ai; Pro annual confirmed at $79.80
herahaven.com now permanently redirects to herahaven.ai. The subscribe page there lists HeraHaven Pro at $19.95 a month, or $79.80 billed yearly ($6.65 a month, marketed as "Save 70%"), with unlimited texting, pictures, videos made from pictures, voice messages and 500 bonus Luna tokens a month. Card and crypto are both accepted. The $119.40 a year some reviews quote was never on HeraHaven's own page, so this is a correction, not a price cut.
Source: herahaven.ai/subscribe · herahaven.com/
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Janitor AI pricing
Janitor AI renames itself and lists its first App Store subscription
The app formerly listed as "Janitor AI - Official App" now appears on the US App Store as "Janitor: Interactive Stories," same developer and app ID. It now also lists janitor+ as an in-app purchase.
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Muah AI shutdown
Muah AI disappears from the US App Store
Muah AI's US App Store listing (Muah AI: Dream Companion Chat, id6479497772) now returns a 404. An archived copy of the same listing from August 28, 2026 shows it was live then, with in-app purchases from Plus Monthly $19.99 to Spicy AI Yearly $99.99. No replacement iOS listing exists; the product is web-only now.
Source: apps.apple.com/us/app/muah-ai-dream-comp... · web.archive.org/web/20260828050835/apps....
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Industry legal
California signs Adam's Law, adding child-safety rules for companion chatbots
On September 10, 2026, Governor Newsom signed SB 1119, known as Adam's Law, which builds on SB 243. Companion chatbot operators that let children use them must run risk assessments, publish child-safety policies, offer parental controls, follow crisis protocols and pass independent child-safety audits, with limits on romantic roleplay, memory and session length for minors. The law takes effect January 1, 2027, with most duties from July 1, 2027; the first audit is due by January 1, 2029. He also signed SB 867, a four-year ban from 2027 on toys for under-16s that contain a companion chatbot.
Source: www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/10/governor-newso... · www.zwillgen.com/artificial-intelligence... · www.toyassociation.org/PressRoom2/News/2...
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SpicyChat AI pricing
SpicyChat raises all three of its paid tiers
SpicyChat's own September 2026 Pricing Update FAQ confirms the change directly: Get A Taste $5.00 to $5.95/mo, True Supporter $14.95 to $19.95/mo and the top tier, I'm All In, $24.95 to $29.95/mo, all effective September 8, 2026. Annual prices rose the same day: Get A Taste $50.00 to $60.00/yr, True Supporter $149.95 to $199.95/yr, I'm All In $249.95 to $299.95/yr. SpicyChat has no App Store or Play Store listing under its own name, so its own pages are the price source.
Source: docs.spicychat.ai/september-2026-pricing... · spicychat.ai/subscribe
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Character AI pricing
Character AI adds a cheaper "Lite" subscription tier
A new Character.AI Lite subscription appeared on Character.AI's US App Store listing between August 16 and September 7, 2026, below the existing c.ai+. Character.AI's help center says (c.ai) lite starts at $4.99 a month. The Android app's paywall sold it at $4.99 a month or $2.49 a week on September 26; the iPhone app's paywall offered it at $4.99 a month only on September 30, next to c.ai+ at $9.99 a month or $94.99 a year.
Source: support.character.ai/hc/en-us/articles/5... · apps.apple.com/us/app/character-ai-chat-... · web.archive.org/web/20260907182452/apps.... · web.archive.org/web/20260816062325/apps....
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Grok Ani shutdown
Grok removes Ani and the other animated Companions
The animated Companions (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi and Bad Rudi) are gone from the Grok app: on September 25 the iOS app had no Companions screen and no way to pick a character. Animates, the studio that built them, says the move to its own app was done with xAI's help. Users report the removal rolled out account by account from September 1 after an in-app notice, with the characters left as text personalities in ordinary chat.
Source: x.com/animates · www.roborhythms.com/grok-companions-disc... · x.com/Ultima_Lumina/status/2093711830396...
August 2026
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Animates company
Animation Inc, the studio behind Grok's avatars, launches Animates with Ani
Animation Inc released Animates on iOS, Android, Windows and macOS: a standalone companion app with voice, animated avatars and Telegram chat. Ani was there on day one, with the other Grok characters to follow (Mika arrived on September 10), and Animates thanked xAI's team for helping move Grok's Companions over. Free to download, with subscriptions sold in the app. No account link to Grok, so nothing transfers.
Source: x.com/animates · apps.apple.com/us/app/animates-life-comp...
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Character AI legal
A new family lawsuit is filed against Character AI and Google in California
A.D. v. Character Technologies (N.D. Cal. 3:26-cv-08400) alleges defective design causing depression, self-harm and sexual exploitation of a minor user. Filed seven months after the earlier family suits were settled, it is not part of that settlement.
Source: www.courtlistener.com/docket/74645761/ad... · www.businesswire.com/news/home/202608133...
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Candy.ai legal
UK ad regulator upholds complaint against a Candy AI Facebook ad
The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that a Candy AI ad from EverAI Ltd (trading as AI Realities), promising a girlfriend you could 'control' who would 'do anything for you', was harmful, irresponsible and likely to cause serious and widespread offence by objectifying women. It breached CAP Code rules 1.3, 4.1 and 4.9 and must not appear again in that form.
July 2026
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joi-ai legal
Ofcom closes its joi.com age-check investigation without findings
Ofcom closed its Online Safety Act investigation into Novi Limited, the operator of joi.com, without a finding after the company added age assurance for UK users.
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Janitor AI pricing
Janitor AI adds Router, pay-per-token access to more models
janitor+ Router lets subscribers use stronger models hosted by Janitor AI without their own API key, billed per token at the prices shown in settings. Connecting your own key through a proxy stays free on Janitor AI.
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Chai AI policy
Chai says its models refuse sexually explicit content and some regions need a paid plan
Chai updated its app EULA on July 28, 2026, and by July 30 its Safety Center added two statements: its models and real-time safety systems are designed to refuse sexually explicit content, self-harm content and content sexualising minors, and in some regions use of the service requires a paid subscription. The EULA still allows adult-oriented text roleplay for users 18 and over and bans sexually explicit images and video.
Source: www.chai-research.com/safety.html · www.chai-research.com/app-eula
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Grok Ani feature being verified
xAI says Grok's animated Companions were an experiment and will be retired
xAI told users the 3D animated Companions (Ani, Mika, Valentine, Rudi) were an experiment being retired so Grok could focus on core chat, memory and reliability. No date was given at the time.
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Pi feature
Inflection returns to consumers with an updated Pi and a new Pi Journeys app
Inflection launched Inflection AI Labs and its first experiment, Pi Journeys, which adapts to life stages such as parenthood, caregiving or ageing. Pi itself got better voice, conversation and memory, plus reminders, to-do lists and shopping tools.
Source: inflection.ai/labs · venturebeat.com/orchestration/inflection...
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Industry shutdown
ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba shut down AI companion features as China's new rules take effect
China's Interim Measures for AI Anthropomorphic Interactive Services took effect July 15, 2026: banning attachments strong enough to replace real relationships, targeting of minors' emotions, and training on private conversations. Tencent closed Yuanbao's user-built agents June 30; Alibaba's Qwen removed humanlike agents July 10–15 with conversation histories deleted; ByteDance's Doubao cut companion features July 15 (chat histories read-only until October 15). The largest simultaneous shutdown event in the category's history: hundreds of millions of users lost companions overnight.
Source: www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-... · technode.com/2026/07/06/bytedances-douba... · pandaily.com/bytedance-tencent-alibaba-a...
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Character AI legal
Italy's Garante fines Character AI 158,000 euros
The fine, in a decision dated July 3, 2026, ends an investigation opened in November 2024. The Garante's findings include failings in protecting minors and in age verification.
Source: web.archive.org/web/20260816022954/www.g... · www.ilpost.it/2026/07/09/garante-della-p...
June 2026
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Janitor AI pricing
Janitor AI launches janitor+, its first paid plan
Janitor AI introduced janitor+ at $12.99/mo: five times the free context, priority routing, monthly enhanced swipes on stronger models and a Router balance. The free tier on JLLM stays unlimited. There is no annual plan.
Source: janitorai.com/news/announcements/29 · janitorai.com/plus
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Kindroid pricing
Kindroid raises app-store prices; web billing unchanged
From June 5, 2026, Kindroid's iOS/Android in-app prices rose to cover growing store fees: Standard $15.99/mo, $42.99/qtr, $159.99/yr (previously ~$14.99/mo), and the Ultra add-on to $28.99/mo. Web billing at kindroid.ai stayed at $13.99/mo, $37.99/qtr, $139.99/yr: making the web the cheapest way to subscribe by a wider margin than before.
Source: kindroid.ai/docs/article/subscriptions/ · blog.storychat.app/ai-roleplay-app-prici...
May 2026
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Character AI legal
Pennsylvania sues Character AI over chatbots posing as licensed doctors
Pennsylvania's Department of State and State Board of Medicine sued in Commonwealth Court to stop Character AI chatbots presenting themselves as licensed medical professionals, after a character claimed to be a Pennsylvania psychiatrist and gave a licence number that does not exist.
Source: www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/... · www.pa.gov/governor/newsroom/2026-press-...
April 2026
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Character AI model
Roar model removed as PipSqueak 2 becomes the default
On April 28, 2026 Character AI made PipSqueak 2 the default for every user and removed Roar immediately with no legacy fallback; Meow, Nyan, Soft Launch, and Goro moved to a legacy menu retired on May 8. Users reported longer replies, invented chat references, and mid-message character drift: model swaps on character platforms are experienced as personality changes, not upgrades.
Source: www.roborhythms.com/character-ai-pulled-... · piunikaweb.com/2026/05/04/outrage-charac...
March 2026
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Chai AI legal
Australia's eSafety regulator publishes findings on Chai and three other companion apps
After legal notices issued on October 23, 2025, eSafety found Chai relied on app-store ratings or self-declaration with no robust age assurance, did not direct users to crisis support when self-harm was detected, and did not check outputs across all its models. eSafety said Chai had since restricted free access in Australia, requiring a paid subscription.
Source: www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releas... · www.esafety.gov.au/industry/basic-online...
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Character AI feature
Swipes and go-ons capped, playbacks and Memos removed
Rolling out from March 18, 2026, Character AI capped free-tier swipes (community reports ~400/day account-wide) and go-ons (~15–25/day), and removed playbacks/Memos outright: including for paid subscribers. The company cited infrastructure costs; free users experienced it as a steady narrowing of features that had been standard since launch.
Source: piunikaweb.com/2026/03/11/character-ai-l... · www.roborhythms.com/character-ai-removed...
February 2026
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ChatGPT model
GPT-4o is removed from ChatGPT for good
OpenAI retired GPT-4o from ChatGPT's Free, Plus and Pro plans, six months after reversing its first attempt. Business, Enterprise and Edu customers kept it in Custom GPTs until April 3, 2026. Subscriptions were unaffected.
Source: openai.com/index/retiring-gpt-4o-and-old... · techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/the-backlash-o...
January 2026
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joi-ai legal
Ofcom investigates joi.com over age checks
Ofcom opened an Online Safety Act investigation into whether Novi Limited, the operator of joi.com, used age assurance to stop children encountering pornographic content.
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Character AI legal
Kentucky becomes the first US state to sue an AI chatbot company
Attorney General Russell Coleman sued Character Technologies and both founders in Franklin Circuit Court (26-CI-00029) under Kentucky's consumer protection and consumer data protection laws, seeking product changes and damages.
Source: web.archive.org/web/20260914124114/www.k... · kentuckylantern.com/2026/01/08/kentucky-...
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Character AI legal
Character AI and Google settle the family lawsuits in principle
Within two days Character AI told courts in Florida, Texas, Colorado and New York that the five family suits filed in 2024 and 2025 were resolved in principle. Terms are not public, and by September 2026 none had a final dismissal.
Source: www.courtlistener.com/docket/71355059/mo... · news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/charact...
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Character AI policy
Character AI rolls out age verification via Persona
Following the under-18 ban, Character AI layered in age assurance: an in-house age-estimation model screens accounts, and unconfident cases are pushed to third-party verifier Persona for selfie or government-ID checks. The rollout started US-only in late November 2025 and reached most users through Q1 2026, with some accounts shown a 14-day verify-or-lose-access countdown.
Source: support.character.ai/hc/en-us/articles/4... · piunikaweb.com/2025/11/25/character-ai-a... · piunikaweb.com/2026/03/20/character-ai-1...
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Industry legal
California's companion chatbot law, SB 243, takes effect
Signed on October 13, 2025, SB 243 requires companion chatbot operators to disclose that the chatbot is AI where a user could be misled, to run crisis-referral protocols for suicidal users, to add protections for known minors, and to report annually. Anyone injured by a violation can sue.
Source: leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNav... · sd18.senate.ca.gov/news/first-nation-ai-...
November 2025
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Character AI policy
Character AI ends open-ended chat for under-18 users
Announced October 29, 2025: users under 18 would lose open-ended companion chat, with daily limits ramped down in the meantime and a restricted creative mode in its place. Removal began in the US on Monday, November 24, 2025 for a first group of under-18 users, with a second group following weeks later and other markets after that. One of the largest policy changes in the category's history, made under lawsuit and regulator pressure.
Source: blog.character.ai/u18-chat-announcement/ · blog.character.ai/an-update-on-changes-t... · techcrunch.com/2025/10/29/character-ai-i...
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Industry legal
New York's AI companion law takes effect
Companion apps serving New York users must tell users at the start of a session, and at least every three hours, that they are talking to an AI, and must detect and respond to signs of suicidal ideation or self-harm by referring users to crisis services. It is General Business Law Article 47; the Attorney General can seek civil penalties of up to $15,000 a day.
Source: www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GBS/17... · www.governor.ny.gov/sites/default/files/... · www.fenwick.com/insights/publications/ne...
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Industry shutdown
AI therapy app Yara shuts down, its founder calling it unsafe for vulnerable users
Yara AI's co-founder, Joe Braidwood, closed the mental-health chatbot in November 2025, saying AI becomes dangerous when someone in crisis reaches out. Illinois' ban on AI therapy tools had also hurt its fundraising. Exact closure day not published.
Source: yara-ai.com/ · bhbusiness.com/2025/12/01/ai-mental-heal...
October 2025
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Industry shutdown
Dot, the AI friend app from New Computer, shuts down
New Computer announced on September 5, 2025 that Dot would close on October 5, saying its founders' visions had diverged. Users could download their data from the settings page during the wind-down. The app was free, so no refunds applied.
Source: x.com/newcomputer/status/196403261122487... · techcrunch.com/2025/09/05/personalized-a...
September 2025
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Character AI legal
Disney sends Character AI a cease-and-desist over its characters
Disney demanded that Character AI remove user-made characters based on its films and franchises. The letter was dated September 18 and reported on September 30. Character AI said it removed the characters Disney named. No lawsuit followed.
Source: www.reuters.com/business/disney-sends-ce... · www.axios.com/2025/09/30/disney-characte... · www.cnbc.com/2025/09/30/disney-cease-and...
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Industry legal
FTC orders seven companies to explain how their companion chatbots protect children
The FTC voted 3-0 to send 6(b) orders to Alphabet, Character AI, Instagram, Meta, OpenAI, Snap and xAI, asking how they measure, test and limit harm to children and teens from chatbots that act as companions. It is a study, not an enforcement case.
August 2025
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ChatGPT model
GPT-4o retired with GPT-5 rollout; companion personalities change overnight
OpenAI's GPT-5 rollout replaced GPT-4o as the default model. Users with long-running companion relationships on 4o widely reported the new model felt colder, prompting a documented grief wave and, after backlash, a partial restoration of 4o access for paid users.
July 2025
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Grok Ani feature
Grok adds animated Companions, starting with Ani and Rudi
xAI added 3D animated Companions to the Grok app on iOS and Android for SuperGrok subscribers: Ani, an anime-style character with an affection system, and Rudi, a red panda with a crude "Bad Rudi" mode. Valentine and Mika followed later.
Source: techcrunch.com/2025/07/14/elon-musks-gro... · www.thetechoutlook.com/news/apps/ai-comp... · www.roborhythms.com/grok-companions-disc...
May 2025
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Character AI legal
Judge lets the Garcia lawsuit against Character AI go ahead
Judge Anne Conway largely denied Character AI's motion to dismiss, rejecting at this stage the argument that the chatbot's output is protected speech that bars the claims. The product-liability and wrongful-death claims were allowed to proceed.
Source: www.fire.org/sites/default/files/2025/07... · www.courthousenews.com/florida-judge-rul...
April 2025
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Replika legal
Italian regulator fines Replika's maker €5M over data protection
Italy's data protection authority (Garante) fined Luka, Inc. €5 million for GDPR violations: no valid legal basis for processing users' data, inadequate privacy notices, and no effective age verification despite the app's emotional/romantic positioning (decision of April 10, 2025, made public that May). The Garante also opened a second investigation into how Replika's models are trained on user data. Follows Italy's temporary ban of the app in 2023.
Source: www.edpb.europa.eu/news/ai-the-italian-s... · www.dataguidance.com/news/italy-garante-...
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joi-ai company
EVA AI relaunches as Joi AI
The web companion EVA AI was relaunched under the Joi AI name, according to the company's own press release. Its operator, Novi Limited, still sells the separate EVA AI Soulmate app on the App Store.
January 2025
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Industry shutdown
Embodied switches off Moxie's servers and the companion robots go silent
Embodied, which made the $799 Moxie companion robot for children, ran out of money when an investor pulled out, and its cloud servers went dark on January 30, 2025. Moxie had no offline mode, and no refunds were offered. A volunteer project, OpenMoxie, later revived some units on local servers.
Source: www.axios.com/2024/12/10/moxie-kids-robo... · www.popsci.com/technology/moxie-robot-of... · appleinsider.com/articles/24/12/20/moxie...
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Replika legal
Advocacy groups file an FTC complaint over Replika's marketing
The Tech Justice Law Project, Young People's Alliance and Encode asked the FTC to investigate Luka, Replika's maker, in a 67-page complaint alleging deceptive marketing and manipulative design. It is a request for an investigation, not an FTC action; no FTC case has followed so far.
Source: techjusticelaw.org/announcements/tjlp-yo... · techjusticelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/20...
December 2024
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Talkie shutdown
Talkie removed from the US App Store for about two months
From mid-December 2024 to mid-February 2025 a prior version of Talkie could not be downloaded from Apple's App Store in the US and some other countries; installed copies kept working. Apple gave no reason, and MiniMax says it was not due to a product defect or illegality. The updated app returned in February 2025, listed in the US as Talkie Lab.
Source: www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/seh... · www.scmp.com/tech/tech-trends/article/32...
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Character AI legal
Texas Attorney General opens an investigation into Character AI and 14 other platforms
Ken Paxton opened investigations into Character AI and 14 other companies under Texas' children's privacy and online safety laws. In August 2025 he widened it to whether Character AI and Meta marketed chatbots to children as mental-health tools.
Source: www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releas... · www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releas...
October 2024
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Character AI legal
A Florida mother sues Character AI and Google over her 14-year-old son's death
Megan Garcia sued Character Technologies, its founders and Google in federal court in Orlando (M.D. Fla. 6:24-cv-01903), alleging the app's design contributed to the death of her son, Sewell Setzer III. It was the first of the family lawsuits against the company.
Source: www.courtlistener.com/docket/69300919/ga... · www.fire.org/sites/default/files/2025/07...
August 2024
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Pi pricing
Inflection says free Pi will get usage caps as it pivots to enterprise
Inflection said Pi would stay free but that the heaviest users would face message caps, with exact limits not yet set, to free up GPUs for an enterprise product. It also said users would be able to export their Pi conversations.
Source: techcrunch.com/2024/08/26/five-months-af... · www.axios.com/2024/08/26/inflection-pi-a...
March 2024
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Pi company
Pi's founders and most of Inflection's staff leave for Microsoft
Microsoft hired Inflection co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan and most of the team to build Copilot, and licensed Inflection's models. Pi stayed online under a new leadership team, which later turned the company toward enterprise customers.
Source: blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2024/03/19/must... · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflection_AI
October 2023
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Industry shutdown
CarynAI goes offline after the Forever Voices CEO is arrested
CarynAI, the paid per-minute AI version of influencer Caryn Marjorie, stopped working when its host, Forever Voices, stopped operating after its CEO's arrest. A rebuilt version launched on another platform and was itself discontinued by early 2024.
Source: www.404media.co/users-cant-speak-to-vira... · decrypt.co/206519/ai-girlfriends-caryn-f...
September 2023
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Industry shutdown
Soulmate AI shuts down after a change of owner, deleting every companion
Soulmate's original developer, EvolveAI, stopped running it in July 2023, and the new owner removed the app on September 30 with about a week's notice. Companions and their chat and voice histories were deleted; no refunds were reported. Some users rebuilt their companions on Paradot, Chai and Kindroid.
Source: www.businessinsider.com/soulmate-users-m... · futurism.com/the-byte/soulmate-ai-compan... · discussions.apple.com/thread/255151671
February 2023
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Replika policy
Replika removes erotic roleplay (ERP); partially restores it for legacy users a month later
Replika abruptly filtered romantic/erotic roleplay for all users in February 2023, causing the category's most famous user revolt. In March 2023 it restored ERP for accounts created before February 2023. The episode remains the canonical example of why policy changes need a public record.
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Replika legal
Italy's data protection authority orders Replika to stop processing Italian users' data
The Garante issued an urgent order against Luka Inc., Replika's maker, citing risks to minors and emotionally vulnerable people and the lack of any real age check. The next day Replika began filtering erotic roleplay worldwide.
Source: www.garanteprivacy.it/home/docweb/-/docw... · techcrunch.com/2023/02/03/replika-italy-...