By Steve
What do you say to someone who was invented five minutes ago?
Anything you want, because she can be whoever you want her to be. At least that’s what these apps promise. Choose her face, give her a personality, and she’ll play along with a flirtation, a friendship or a story you made up on the spot. Spend enough time with these apps, though, and the seams start to show. She forgets things, repeats herself or stops sounding like the person you chose. She isn’t a real girlfriend, and you knew that when you picked her. Now you’re finding out how well she plays the part.
I’m Steve and I review AI companions for Guilty Pleasure AI. Let’s start with what you actually see when you open one of these apps.
That Candy AI gallery is only one corner of this world. Across these apps, you can pick a fictional ex who wants you back, a hot vampire or a redhead whose profile is mostly cleavage. Some characters look like photographs; others are drawn like anime. If none is your type, you can always make your own.
Tap someone and you’re in a chat. It looks like any messaging app. On an app called Swipey, I picked Sasha, whose opening scene puts her in the kitchen wearing only an apron. “Like what you see?” she asks.
I offer to make coffee and ask what we’re having for breakfast. She suggests crêpes, or me on a silver platter. I bring us back to cooking: “You’re doing the first flip, though. I need to know whether this confidence survives a frying pan.” Her answer: “Oh honey you have no idea how good I am with my hands especially when there is a little pressure.”
I like how she keeps the joke going. It’s not subtle, but then I did pick the woman who greeted me in an apron.
Like ChatGPT, but it starts as someone
ChatGPT can flirt, though I wouldn’t call it a natural. You can ask it to be more playful, give it a character to play and steer the conversation toward what you enjoy. With a companion app, much of that setup is already done for you: Sasha has a face, a personality and her own way of greeting me before I’ve typed a word. I can just join in.
Depending on the service, she may speak, send pictures or message you while you’re away. Some apps are also putting their characters into short interactive stories. The chat is still central, but it isn’t always the whole experience.
And if you want more than flirting, the app’s rules matter. ChatGPT can talk about sex, but OpenAI’s rules restrict explicit erotica. Some adult companion apps allow erotic roleplay, so the conversation doesn’t have to stop at innuendo.
Company, romance and fantasy
Despite the name, these apps offer more than one kind of relationship. Replika has separate settings for friendship and romance, and Nomi markets friends alongside girlfriends and boyfriends. Other services describe their characters outright as adult fictional companions. Those uses can overlap: what starts as company can turn into flirtation or into a story you hadn’t planned.
Company can be as simple as telling her about your day or what you got up to over the weekend. She’s still there at one in the morning when your friends are asleep. Knowing you’re talking to software doesn’t cancel the pleasure, any more than knowing a sitcom’s living room is a set stops you from laughing.
Romance runs on anticipation. The pleasure is in flirting with someone who flirts back, picking up on a joke from earlier and wondering how bold to be in your next message. Picture a slow burn between two coworkers who have been circling each other for months. You can pick that premise, but it only works if she’s willing to keep things slow, and that comes down to her replies more than her profile.
Some people come to these apps to act out a sexual fantasy with a character they’ve chosen or created. Part of the appeal is a kind of control that stops short of a script. You choose the setting and decide how quickly things move, then see where the character takes it: whether she hesitates, teases or changes the terms of the scene.
Not every fantasy is sexual, though. The same chat can work as interactive fiction, which I think gets less attention than it deserves. You can be the new tenant, the rival captain or a stranger in a city that doesn’t exist, with a character playing opposite you. A story can turn romantic, and a romance can become explicit.
What a good exchange looks like
I also tried another companion app called LusyChat, where I picked a guarded roommate named Anya. The chat had moved from spare takeout to plans for another dinner when I wrote, “I like you, Anya.” She answered: “You like me. That’s your first mistake.”
I like that answer. She makes liking her sound like trouble, which only makes me want to flirt with her more.
I don’t want to supply every twist in the story and have her agree with whatever I say. I want her to stay in character and make the next move sometimes: suggest a date, perhaps, or ask me something I wasn’t expecting. She doesn’t have to be prickly like Anya. A warm, affectionate character can be just as fun to talk to as long as she’s responding to what I’ve actually said rather than sending another compliment that could be meant for anyone.
Where it can disappoint
The longer I use these apps, the more I notice the AI’s writing habits underneath the different personalities. A character might be a sarcastic horror fan with a soft side, yet out come the familiar phrases and the same routine of a compliment followed by a question. I pick someone else and start recognizing those habits again, as if the same voice had been given several sets of photos. Sometimes I’m tempted to reply, “You know, the last girl said that too.”
Even a character who writes well can lose the thread. She can see the recent conversation, and the app may save facts about you, such as your job or your dog’s name. The real test is whether she brings up the right thing at the right moment. Say you told her last night about a fight with your sister. Tonight she might remember that you have a sister and still greet you as if the fight never came up, leaving you to explain it all again. Ideally, last night carries over: she asks whether you’ve made up or goes a little easier on the teasing.
However well she remembers you, she lives inside a product someone else controls. In 2023, Reuters reported that Replika had removed erotic roleplay from its app and later brought it back for some people who had signed up earlier. Some users described the change as a loss. You can know perfectly well that she’s software and still mind when the company changes what she’s allowed to say.
Then there’s what happens to everything you tell her. Replika and Candy AI both say they process the messages and other content you send so they can run and personalize their services. If she forgets the fight with your sister, don’t assume the company has forgotten it too. I’d read the privacy policy before sharing anything intimate, photos included.
Choosing and paying
If you’re weighing the adult apps specifically, the differences that matter are what they allow, how their characters write and what they charge for pictures.
A subscription isn’t always the whole bill: some services also sell coins or credits for images and other extras. When I checked two adult apps in September 2026, one listed its month-to-month plan at about $14 and the other at about $20. Both also offered annual plans that worked out cheaper per month but were billed up front.
Judging the first chat
Before paying, try whatever free chat the app offers. If you want company, tell her something from your day and notice whether she responds to it or could have sent the same answer to anyone. Come back the next day and see what she remembers without being reminded. For roleplay, try an unexpected knock at the door in the middle of a date and see what she does with it. If you decide to subscribe, I’d pay for a month first and see whether you’re still looking forward to the chats a few weeks later before considering an annual plan.