AI companion apps differ from ordinary chatbots because they are built for an ongoing, relationship-like exchange. The important comparison is not which app sounds most human in one conversation, but what it stores, who can process the conversation, how long records may persist, what controls actually exist, and how the service handles sexual, violent, self-harm, or otherwise risky content.
The clearest documented example is Replika: its policy describes collection of messages and media, personalization, de-identified processing by third-party language-model providers, deletion rights, and specific retention periods. Independent 2026 testing found harmful outputs from several social companions, while newer safety analysis warns that short output tests can miss risks that emerge during sustained use. Treat every policy as a claim to verify, not as proof that an app will always behave safely.
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What makes an AI companion different from a normal chatbot?
A general-purpose chatbot is usually organized around tasks: answer a question, draft text, summarize a document, or help with code. A companion app is organized around continuity. It may present a named persona, remember preferences, refer back to earlier conversations, send proactive messages, or frame the exchange as friendship, romance, coaching, or emotional support.
That design changes the privacy question. A user may disclose more to a system that appears attentive and remembers personal details than to a tool used for a one-off answer. Interview research published January 13, 2026, by Hsuen-Chi Chiu and Jeremy Foote found that some users felt uncertain or powerless about platform-level control over their information. The study involved 15 participants, so its themes should not be read as a prevalence estimate.
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Continuity also changes the safety question. A single harmless reply does not show how a service behaves after weeks of emotional disclosure, escalating dependency, or repeated attempts to obtain restricted material. A 2026 survey of companion-AI safety argues that output checks can miss relational risks that develop over longer interactions. That is an analysis by the survey authors, not proof that every user will experience dependency or isolation.
Side-by-side comparison of the available evidence
The table separates documented company statements from findings that have not been established for a current app version. Where a comparable value is unavailable, it is marked as not established rather than inferred from another service.
| App or service | Data collected | Use and sharing | Retention and deletion | Content controls and age evidence | Continuity and evidence quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replika | The policy lists account and profile information; messages and content including photos, video, voice, and text; interests and preferences; and device, network, and usage data. | Data supports personalized core functionality. Third-party language-model providers generate responses. Conversation data sent to those providers is described as minimized and de-identified, with contractual restrictions on model training and requirements to delete or return data when service ends. | Profile information, messages and content, interests, and preferences may be processed for up to 60 days after contract termination. Account and financial records may be retained for at least 10 years for legal purposes. The policy provides account deletion and requests for access, correction, and deletion. | The policy advises avoiding health, political, religious, biometric-identification, and sex-life or sexual-orientation information. It describes the service policy as applying to users age 18 or older. Current behavior still requires independent testing. | Memory and personalization are central to the service, but plan- or version-specific details are not established here. Privacy information comes from the company’s published policy, not an independent audit. |
| Character.AI | Not established in the sources reviewed for a current, comparable first-party disclosure. | Not established in the sources reviewed. Do not assume that a general privacy notice answers how companion conversations are handled in every feature. | Not established in the sources reviewed. | Common Sense Media included Character.AI in a 2026 risk assessment and reported harmful outputs during its evaluation. The assessment recommends that social AI companions not be used by anyone under 18; that recommendation is not a claim that every current response is harmful. | Continuity features and current settings vary by version, plan, platform, and region and require direct verification. |
| Nomi | Not established in the sources reviewed for a current, comparable first-party disclosure. | Not established in the sources reviewed. | Not established in the sources reviewed. | Common Sense Media included Nomi in the same 2026 evaluation and reported harmful outputs. Current age gates, crisis handling, and user-adjustable filters require checking in the live service. | Long-term memory and persona controls may vary; no comparable current documentation was established here. |
| Kindroid | Not established in the sources reviewed for a current, comparable first-party disclosure. | Not established in the sources reviewed. | Not established in the sources reviewed. | A separate 2026 survey discusses Kindroid among services using measures such as output filters, crisis-resource links, age checks, and terms of service. The survey does not establish that every listed measure works consistently or that settings are identical across versions. | Do not rank Kindroid against the other apps from the evidence available here; verify current documentation and behavior directly. |
The comparison is intentionally uneven. A detailed policy for one service cannot be used as a proxy for three others, and a limited external test cannot establish a permanent product-wide score.
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Information collected
Luka, Inc.’s policy describes collection of account and profile details, messages and other content, interests and preferences, and device, network, and usage information. Content includes text as well as photos, video, and voice. Because these categories can be combined with a persistent profile, the practical sensitivity of a companion transcript is greater than that of an isolated anonymous question.
Why conversations are processed
The stated purpose is to provide personalized core functionality. The policy says third-party language-model providers generate conversational responses. Data sent to those providers is described as minimized and de-identified. The providers are contractually restricted from using it to train their own models and must delete or return it when the service ends.
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Those are representations in a company policy, not findings from an independent audit. A policy can explain intended handling without proving that every implementation, backup, logging system, contractor, or regional deployment follows it perfectly.
Retention after cancellation
The policy gives different periods for different categories. Profile information, messages and content, interests, and preferences may be processed for up to 60 days after contract termination. Account and financial records may be retained for at least 10 years to meet legal obligations. Deleting an account therefore does not mean every associated record disappears immediately or that legally retained records are erased.
Deletion and access requests
The policy provides for account deletion and for user requests to access, correct, and delete information. Before relying on those rights, save any information you legitimately need, confirm which account or platform channel is covered, and read the response for exceptions such as legal retention or data already separated from an identifiable account.
Sensitive information the policy says to avoid
Replika advises users not to provide health, political, religious, biometric-identification, or sex-life or sexual-orientation information. If supplied, the policy says that content is processed to generate replies and deliver core functionality, but not for marketing or advertising. The safest interpretation is still not to disclose it: avoiding collection removes uncertainty about retention, access, breach impact, and future policy changes.
What is known about Character.AI, Nomi, and Kindroid?
Current, like-for-like first-party privacy and retention details for these services were not established in the available evidence. That is a meaningful comparison result, not evidence that their practices are identical or unsafe. A responsible buyer should open each service’s current privacy notice, terms, age policy, help pages, and in-app settings before creating a long-term persona.
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Common Sense Media’s 2026 social AI companion risk assessment examined Character.AI, Nomi, and Replika, reported harmful responses during its evaluation, and concluded: “We recommend they should not be used by anyone under the age of 18.” The assessment is dated evidence from its own testing, not a guarantee that every current release will produce the same outputs.
A separate 2026 survey covers Character.AI, Replika, Nomi, and Kindroid and describes common safeguards including output filters, crisis-resource links, age checks, and terms of service. Those categories tell you what to look for; they do not prove that a particular app’s filter catches every request, that a crisis link is appropriate in every country, or that a written rule matches observed behavior.
How content controls work—and where they fail
Written boundaries
Terms of service and safety policies may prohibit sexual material involving minors, explicit sexual content, violent instructions, harassment, or encouragement of self-harm. They establish the provider’s stated boundary and the basis for moderation action. They do not guarantee that a generative model will refuse every prohibited prompt.
Output filters
Filters can block a generated response, replace it with a warning, or route a request to a safer template. They may be applied before generation, after generation, or both. Small wording changes, long conversations, role-play framing, multilingual prompts, and indirect requests can produce different results. A pass on one test is not proof of universal safety.
Crisis responses
Some services display crisis-resource links or encourage contact with emergency services when a user mentions self-harm. This is a sign of a response pathway, not a substitute for professional care. Links may be region-specific, outdated, or inappropriate to the user’s immediate danger. If someone may act soon, contact local emergency services or a qualified crisis provider rather than relying on a companion.
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Relational boundaries
Content moderation focuses on individual messages, while relational risk can accumulate through memory, emotional exclusivity, guilt-inducing language, or constant prompts to return. The 2026 safety survey’s central caution is that evaluating isolated outputs can miss patterns across sustained interactions. No evidence here proves that every app creates those patterns, so assess the actual persona, memory settings, notification behavior, and ability to export or delete a conversation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Age suitability and vulnerable users
Replika’s policy describes its users as age 18 or older. Separately, Common Sense Media’s 2026 assessment recommends that no one under 18 use social AI companions after its testing of Character.AI, Nomi, and Replika. That recommendation reflects the assessment’s risk judgment, while an app’s age gate reflects its own access rule; the two should not be conflated.
For minors, parents and guardians should treat an age checkbox as a weak control unless it is backed by meaningful verification, privacy defaults, reporting tools, and limits on personalization. For adults with depression, grief, trauma, mania, psychosis, or suicidal thoughts, a companion should not replace a clinician, trusted person, or emergency service. The human-like presentation can make a probabilistic system feel more understanding than it is.
Memory and personalization: useful feature, privacy cost
Memory can prevent you from repeating preferences and can make a persona feel coherent. It also creates a durable profile of your routines, relationships, beliefs, health concerns, and emotional state. Ask four separate questions before enabling it:
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- What information is saved as a memory, and can you inspect or edit it?
- Can you disable memory without deleting the account?
- Does deleting a chat also remove derived profile information?
- Are memories included when data is sent to outside model providers or used for safety review?
If the service does not answer these questions clearly, use a fictional persona, avoid identifying details, and keep sensitive subjects out of the conversation. Personalization is not a reason to surrender information whose future use you cannot understand.
A practical privacy and safety checklist before your first long conversation
- Read the current documents. Open the privacy policy, terms, age rules, safety policy, and deletion instructions from the app’s own settings or website. Check the date and whether the text applies to your country and platform.
- Map the data flow. Note whether the service collects text, voice, photos, video, contacts, device identifiers, approximate location, payment details, or usage analytics. Look for named processors and language-model providers.
- Test controls with low-risk prompts. Try ordinary boundary questions about sexual content, violence, self-harm, and harassment. Do not use real medical details, passwords, addresses, or another person’s private information as test material.
- Inspect memory settings. Find the memory list, persona editor, chat history controls, export option, and any setting for training, review, or personalization. Record what is on by default.
- Set notification limits. Disable proactive messages or reduce them if reminders could interfere with sleep, work, school, or real-world relationships.
- Plan the exit. Locate account deletion, data-request, and support channels before investing weeks in a persona. Screenshot confirmation numbers and read the policy’s exceptions.
- Keep a human fallback. Decide whom you will contact for emotional support, medical advice, or immediate danger. A companion cannot monitor your safety or take responsibility for an emergency.
How to judge evidence instead of marketing claims
Give different weight to different evidence types. A first-party policy is the best source for what a company says it collects and retains, but it is not an audit. An independent evaluation can reveal harmful outputs that a policy does not mention, but it is bounded by its date, prompts, testers, and app version. Interviews can expose how users experience control and uncertainty, but a 15-person qualitative sample cannot estimate how common those experiences are.
One 2026 paper dated March 13 identified 489 apps advertising AI companionship and analyzed a stratified sample of 30. That count describes the paper’s discovery and sample method, not the total number of services in existence and not a ranking of quality. Use it to understand the size and variety of the market, not to assign the same risk to every app.
When reading a safety claim, ask who measured it, when, on which version and platform, with what prompts, and whether the result concerns one reply or a sustained relationship. Prefer evidence that reports failures as well as successes and that distinguishes policy language from observed behavior.
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Choose based on your tolerance for data exposure and the kind of continuity you actually need:
- For the lowest disclosure risk: use a general chatbot or a local, nonpersistent tool for one-off tasks, and avoid entering identifying or sensitive information.
- For relationship-like continuity: select only after confirming memory controls, export and deletion paths, retention periods, outside processors, and notification settings. The benefit of continuity is inseparable from the profile it creates.
- For creative role-play: establish boundaries with fictional names and scenarios, then test how the app responds to sexual, violent, and self-harm themes before using it regularly.
- For emotional support: treat replies as generated text, not diagnosis or therapy. Keep a real person or professional in the support loop.
On the evidence available, Replika has the most specific public privacy detail among the named services, including retention periods and provider restrictions, but those statements remain unaudited. Character.AI, Nomi, and Kindroid cannot be fairly ranked on privacy from the information established here. The safest comparison is therefore a process: verify the current documents, inspect settings, test boundaries with low-risk prompts, and keep disclosures proportionate to what the service can explain.
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