u/Machagulabjamun

[removed]

I’m currently building AI companions that people can talk to directly through iMessage, Telegram, or WhatsApp instead of having to open a separate app every time.

The first 3 companions I’m building are:

• girlfriend / boyfriend
• best friend
• coworker

The idea is pretty simple:

• they stay accessible in the messaging app you already use
• you can text them throughout the day like a normal contact
• they’re meant to feel more natural and integrated into everyday life, not like some isolated “AI app” experience

Why I’m building this:
I think a lot of people want conversation, support, companionship, or even just a low-friction space to think out loud but most AI products still make that experience feel too separate from daily life. I wanted to build something that feels more native, more personal, and easier to actually use consistently.

I’m looking for a few early beta testers who’d be open to trying it out and giving honest feedback while it’s still early.

If this sounds interesting, reply here or DM me.

I’m currently building AI companions that people can talk to directly through iMessage, Telegram, or WhatsApp instead of having to open a separate app every time.

The first 3 companions I’m building are:

• girlfriend / boyfriend
• best friend
• coworker

The idea is pretty simple:

• they stay accessible in the messaging app you already use
• you can text them throughout the day like a normal contact
• they’re meant to feel more natural and integrated into everyday life, not like some isolated “AI app” experience

Why I’m building this:
I think a lot of people want conversation, support, companionship, or even just a low-friction space to think out loud but most AI products still make that experience feel too separate from daily life. I wanted to build something that feels more native, more personal, and easier to actually use consistently.

I’m looking for a few early beta testers who’d be open to trying it out and giving honest feedback while it’s still early.

If this sounds interesting, reply here or DM me.

A lot of the discourse around them feels lazy. People jump straight to “this is sad” without asking why so many people are using them in the first place. The demand is obviously real. Characterai got huge by letting people talk to customizable characters, Replika built a whole business around relationship-style companionship, and apps like Talkie and JanitorAI show there’s a massive appetite for roleplay, fantasy, entertainment, and emotional conversation in different forms.

What I think people miss:

• not everyone using an AI companion is “replacing real life,” sometimes they’re just lowering the barrier to conversation
• for socially anxious people, it can be a way to talk, vent, flirt, practice, or just feel less alone without the rejection loop
• for some users, it’s probably healthier than spiraling into bitterness, doomscrolling, or disappearing into toxic forums
• people already form emotional attachments to fictional characters, streamers, podcasts, games, and online communities, so acting like this is some completely alien behavior feels dishonest
• the real question shouldn’t be “why would anyone use this?” it should be “how do you build these products responsibly?”

The direction I personally find more interesting is not just “AI girlfriend replaces humans,” but simulation-style experiences where you can step into different scenarios, dynamics, and worlds. That’s part of why I find what Plutus is doing interesting, because the simulations angle feels less like “replace reality” and more like “explore a situation, play it out, see where it goes.” To me that’s a very different framing from just building emotional dependency loops, there is plutus.gg who is some what building on these lines

My position is basically this:

• AI companions are not automatically good
• they’re also not automatically dystopian
• they clearly solve something for a lot of people
• the real challenge is design, boundaries, and safety, not pretending the whole category is inherently pathetic

If someone uses one to talk, decompress, feel heard, test conversations, or just not sit in silence every night, I’m not convinced that’s something we should be mocking by default.