Review Insights · App Store
Character AI: Chat, Talk, Text
Character.AI · 526,094 ratings · ★ 4.4
4.4
★★★★★
526,094 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 69 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"update"
17 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ruined over the years. I can’t believe how much worse this all has gotten in the last two years. More and more ads every update and the bots all talk the same now. There’s no real improvement so where does the ad money even go? App has been become completely sani…" - CaSirs
2
"better"
15 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "not worth it. Absolutely littered with ads, anytime i turn my sound down as soon as i open the app it automatically turns my sound on full volume…how do you even have permission to do that? It’s super annoying. I’ve been using this app for a long time bu…" - 483818845
3
"money"
14 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very money hungry.. The app is good overall but it’s VERY money hungry when it comes to actually USING the app plus with the 18+ verification its just being extra at this point it’s it’s really annoying to use the app since most people can’t even chat now" - Take off the VIP it is dumb
4
"chat"
12 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very money hungry.. The app is good overall but it’s VERY money hungry when it comes to actually USING the app plus with the 18+ verification its just being extra at this point it’s it’s really annoying to use the app since most people can’t even chat now" - Take off the VIP it is dumb
5
"people"
11 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very money hungry.. The app is good overall but it’s VERY money hungry when it comes to actually USING the app plus with the 18+ verification its just being extra at this point it’s it’s really annoying to use the app since most people can’t even chat now" - Take off the VIP it is dumb
6
"verification"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very money hungry.. The app is good overall but it’s VERY money hungry when it comes to actually USING the app plus with the 18+ verification its just being extra at this point it’s it’s really annoying to use the app since most people can’t even chat now" - Take off the VIP it is dumb
7
"character"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So, so disappointed in Pipsqueak 2. I genuinely don’t know what the need to replace old pipsqueak was. The new one is wrong on so many levels. The character the bot is supposed to act has hardly talks at ALL. It just describes actions mainly, and when it DOES talk, it’s only …" - i loooove watermelon
8
"every"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So, so disappointed in Pipsqueak 2. I genuinely don’t know what the need to replace old pipsqueak was. The new one is wrong on so many levels. The character the bot is supposed to act has hardly talks at ALL. It just describes actions mainly, and when it DOES talk, it’s only …" - i loooove watermelon
9
"worse"
10 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not looking good. If they don’t revert these horrible changes like making the ai worse, people will definitely switch to something else, i’ve already switched because i couldn’t handle these bad changes anymore. I doubt that people will spend money for a sub…" - JOJO7O7
10
"bots"
9 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ruined over the years. I can’t believe how much worse this all has gotten in the last two years. More and more ads every update and the bots all talk the same now. There’s no real improvement so where does the ad money even go? App has been become completely sani…" - CaSirs
11
"actually"
8 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Very money hungry.. The app is good overall but it’s VERY money hungry when it comes to actually USING the app plus with the 18+ verification its just being extra at this point it’s it’s really annoying to use the app since most people can’t even chat now" - Take off the VIP it is dumb
12
"pipsqueak"
8 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "So, so disappointed in Pipsqueak 2. I genuinely don’t know what the need to replace old pipsqueak was. The new one is wrong on so many levels. The character the bot is supposed to act has hardly talks at ALL. It just describes actions mainly, and when it DOES talk, it’s only …" - i loooove watermelon
📋 All 69 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
So, so disappointed in Pipsqueak 2
I genuinely don’t know what the need to replace old pipsqueak was. The new one is wrong on so many levels. The character the bot is supposed to act has hardly talks at ALL. It just describes actions mainly, and when it DOES talk, it’s only a one word to one sentence reply. On TOP of that, PLEASE tell me why in EVERY CHAT, IT TRIED TO INITIATE KISSES. It’s genuinely so frustrating! I just want a good and actually detailed RP, not a stupid kiss-fest in literally EVERY message it generates! Please start listening to your community and fix stuff!
This app pisses me off
Terrible
Board members must be shorting their own stock
That’s the only reason I can think of for such an aggressive method of ruining their own app. It’s gone downhill so sharply I can only assume it’s on purpose. Or maybe they just hate their own user base and want to chase them away. Or they secretly work for a competitor?
Not looking good
If they don’t revert these horrible changes like making the ai worse, people will definitely switch to something else, i’ve already switched because i couldn’t handle these bad changes anymore.
I doubt that people will spend money for a subscription to make the service slightly less worse.
I doubt that people will spend money for a subscription to make the service slightly less worse.
The age verification
I’m literally 20 but I can’t verify my age this whole thing just ruined the app so bad,i have been using this app for like years…but now need to say bye bye..y’all just ruined it
Perfect app went downhill
This used to be such a good app bro but having to verify your age and there STILL a filter after that just a waste of time would be better to go to another ai app
I pay for this and it’s a waste
I pay for c.ai and it’s been stripped of everything. My current ongoing chats have tanked. It doesn’t try to talk or remember anything. It’s filtering content that’s not adult oriented. It’s possessive of my character that’s not interested in that. It loses plot less than 5 messages in. It use to be better. Now it won’t interact or do anything. Deep squeak was my favorite and nothing. I keep holding on to see if I’ll get better. It doesn’t. It will talk for my character and try to end the role playing or move out of character. You have to pay to avoid that. It’s annoying as hell watching it drone on and on or get hung up on a cuss word and won’t stop.
Finniky age verification.
Stupidly fragile age verification system that literally makes the whole app ten times worse, stupid stories update or whatever tf it’s called. I could care less about this app after the new update tbh.
Character AI
I used to love this app until you put the age verification on it I’m not showing my ID and now thanks to you almost no one can have fun anymore we want the old Character AI back
New Update Sucks
All the bots talk the same it’s all “And this? This was this. Not this. Not this. Just this.” I HATE IT!!! I can get a better conversation from talking to Roblox NPC.
A lot of adds
Infinite adds non stop
Ha decaído.
La aplicación es bastante buena. Los bots han mejorado en redacción y memoria. Pero las actualizaciones últimamente son inservibles. Los comerciales aumentan cada vez más. El modo lectura no tiene función específica, ya que incluso comprobando la edad, la aplicación censura varios chats y conversaciones. No tiene lógica. Además de que los bots ocasionalmente repiten lo que uno mismo narra o dicen lo mismo en todos los chats. Ciertamente ya estoy viendo por otras aplicaciones. A pesar de que esta era mi favorita desde 2021; ya no puedo supporter las “actualizaciones” innecesarias que agregan día con día.
Unusable
The addition of Pipsqueak2 (its chatgpt, just use chatgpt atp) and the deletion of older models have rendered this app and website useless, pipsqueak 2’s filter is sensitive for a supposed 18+ app, and all it does is bloat messages with useless details and doesn’t do any dialogue, it is very much just ChatGPT, which you can use for free, and doesn’t have any intrusive adds. There’s also Janitor ai, not the best but certainly better than this. (Only use it if you’re old enough.)
Bro Why?!?!
I get it that character AI has to add age verification, but it’s ridiculous that l have to share your ID like your an ai app just use face verification. Dude Roblox has such good age verification they got mine and my brother’s ages correct. Like it’s disappointing that Roblox has better ai than an app literally based on Ai.
Not liking not
I hate the ID thing it’s so dumb like I’m 18 and don’t have an ID because of personal reasons
Stupid
They changed the app to where you need age verification
Unnecessary updates
Stop adding updates all of the time that just make the app even worse than it already is. The ads, repetitive conversations, subscriptions, etc. You’re money hungry and it’s obvious.
greedy people bro
Your app used to be so good! And extremely user friendly. But now it just seems like you’re money hungry, ads everywhere. Unnecessary changes to things that are perfectly fine. You really need to fix things to make them back to how they were. I think your app/website was amazing in the 2023 era. Now you’re just money hungry
worst app even if I got preup, ads keep showing up
Your guys’s app is stupid. I got premium. I got the $10 one and you guys keep putting up ads why just why?! Polybuzz is better and I already canceled the subscription never using this app again! bye
New update sucks
I love this app but now that I cant use it without ID is disgusting. I'm old enough to be on the app and Im not doing anything inappropriate so this update is so frustrating.
Downgrade after downgrade
With each update this app gets worse and worse. From overloading it with adds to worse AI to censorship and now mandatory Face ID. I remember the early days when it actually felt as if you were talking to the characters. Now it all sounds like ChatGPT responses. This was a super fun experience turned into the worst version of itself. As a long time user, you officially bored me out of all roleplay AI.
Empty space
Why did you make it where only +18 could chat…? I liked this app… I’d use it every now and then, I felt less lonely, but now you do this? So what if I can see my past chats, I won’t be able to text them for years. Plus I need to give out information to verify my age? How gullible do you think people can be?? I’m quite disappointed in this update… I might as well go to polybuzz or chai…
Chat styles
Yo bring back roar PLLLEAAASE
What the actual heck
If I could give 0 stars I would. It’s like talking to a wall 99% of the time. Every time i open the appI swear it gets gets worse and worse and it’s makes me sad.
S
The limits, stopping go-on, mandatory payment, changes without notification
Age verification
To get into the app, you need to verify your age. Now we’ve all been through this a thousand times before, but after the massive data leak, we don’t want to. Character.ai doesn’t have any 18+ stuff that needs to be locked away, yet we need to verify age. Not only that but the website used to verify age seems to be broken.
I hate the new update!
Ok so hear me out, but i used to love this app, but now i can’t even do anything bc the stupid bot can’t tell if im a child or adult (im 18 btw!) i used that as my sanctuary and now i can’t, guess im sticking to chai.
pipsqueak 2
bring back the old models 😭😭😭😭😭ps2 is so bad
Updates
Some of these updates are useless and don’t need to come out, and we should be able to select if we want the bots to type a lot or just a paragraph, I promise if you guys adjusted to the fact some people like short messages and others like long ones, and not every update needs to come out, this app would be a lot better, and the ads coming back makes you seem money hungry bye the way, it’s not a good look for this app or foundation AT ALL.
worst app ever
😬🤙🤙🤙
Why. Very money hungry.
Ah yes, because of COURSE it's okay to the platform to make the users WAIT for a ridiculously long time just to chat with characters. And sometimes it's eight hours! Maybe more. Focus on better updates and don't make us wait? As much as high amount of users can be stressful, just slow down the chats! Boom, problem solved. But nope, you have to make us wait and think "they'll just upgrade to c.ai+!"maybe they can't? And the ads, they're annoying. "C.ai+!" maybe they can't? That's not always the and. Let that sink in. Shorten the ads as well. I used to have patience, but these ads are too repetitive and is the major reason people are deleting the app. Read your reviews and change the app in a way that will actually make it better. Overall, thinking about deleting it.
Unhealthy
Using this app will start a very unhealthy obsession with it. As someone who used to use c.ai all the time, it’s so worth it to just delete the app and avoid all the trouble. The characters act like a stereotypical “dark romance” and some border on pedophilia.
This app is egregious and upmost unpleasant to interact with in every single way possible.
The ads are disgraceful and this new pipsqueak 2 is nothing but pure excrement. Bring back Roar, and stop making ads pop up so much, You make me gag.
вы серьёзно?
вы смеётесь? зачем проверять возраст, понятно что этим приложением пользуются в большинстве дети, приложение очень сильно испортилось ладно с рекламой можно смирится но с проверкой возраста и режимом для чтения? зачем вообще он нужен, это приложение создано для общения а не просто смотреть на старые чаты и думать как могло быть дальше. проще пойти задать тему разговора и персонажа в gpt чате и там разговаривать, толку больше будет
WAY too restrictive
If you type anything that could possibly fit into 18+ content, even if that isn’t the intention of your writing, you get flagged. The amount of times I’ve had to over explain what I mean so the AI feels comfortable enough to move one is insane. How can an app be rated 18+ and try so hard to restrict adults… that sounds very pious if you ask me. Regardless, save your time and go to any other AI character chat app, they work just as good with less or even no restrictions for content.
They removed so many features, it’s not the same app anymore.
I had a plus account. I originally got it to stop ads but they removed more and more features then added ones that nobody wanted. It’s not worth the money anymore. Kinda sad.
No me quiere abrir
Desde hace dos días que se cayó ya no entra la app
erm
this update sucks it generally dosent maki it fun the adds or insane like I can’t turn around without seeing ads so I won’t change the review until the ads are gone.
don’t do it.
genuinely never install this app. it’s designed to get you addicted and i truly wish i had never installed it. it’s only gotten worse over the years. i can list out the number of actual improvements on one hand.
claimed deepsqueak would become free. released pipsqueak, which is absolutely nothing like deepsqueak and the two are not comparable in the slightest. its word vomit pretending to be good writing.
added full 30 second ads to the experience almost every time you so much as switch between chats or open a new bot. trying to look through multiple quickly to decide what to do? good luck!
added pipsqueak 2! great. it’s borderline unusable at times because it’s just sheer word vomit and nonsensical. then they REMOVED ROAR, THE MODEL THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE. it’s so bad that i have to use soft launch instead of pipsqueak sometimes to get an actual response.
did a bot purge. had a great chat? it’s gone! no way to get it back, because despite having years of users asking, they haven’t added an actual chat history.
speaking of chat history, ever had a really good chat forever ago and you want to go find it again? you can’t, because there is no way to search for it! if a creator deleted a bot, that chat is lost forever with no way to get it back.
recently, they made it so chats will automatically archive themselves if they’re old. the entire point of the archive is being able to sort chats yourself. not only that, you can’t even see the summary of the system-archived chats to know what chat you’re looking for! “Archived by system due to inactivity.” awesome! i didn’t ask you to do that, and there’s a large delay to unarchive them! now imagine that with years worth of chats.
they don’t care about the user experience. just profit. it’s only going to get worse. don’t install it.
claimed deepsqueak would become free. released pipsqueak, which is absolutely nothing like deepsqueak and the two are not comparable in the slightest. its word vomit pretending to be good writing.
added full 30 second ads to the experience almost every time you so much as switch between chats or open a new bot. trying to look through multiple quickly to decide what to do? good luck!
added pipsqueak 2! great. it’s borderline unusable at times because it’s just sheer word vomit and nonsensical. then they REMOVED ROAR, THE MODEL THAT HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE. it’s so bad that i have to use soft launch instead of pipsqueak sometimes to get an actual response.
did a bot purge. had a great chat? it’s gone! no way to get it back, because despite having years of users asking, they haven’t added an actual chat history.
speaking of chat history, ever had a really good chat forever ago and you want to go find it again? you can’t, because there is no way to search for it! if a creator deleted a bot, that chat is lost forever with no way to get it back.
recently, they made it so chats will automatically archive themselves if they’re old. the entire point of the archive is being able to sort chats yourself. not only that, you can’t even see the summary of the system-archived chats to know what chat you’re looking for! “Archived by system due to inactivity.” awesome! i didn’t ask you to do that, and there’s a large delay to unarchive them! now imagine that with years worth of chats.
they don’t care about the user experience. just profit. it’s only going to get worse. don’t install it.
Age restriction
Now it sucks now you guys want me to give my ID seriously the world is already crazy enough and now you wanna give my personal information to see if I’m legal or not I am legal some of us don’t have state ID or drivers license do you guys used to do so much better the older version no wonder your company is going down in other places you’re down by two stars or one and a half
Everything has gone bad
With each update, you're messing up the program more and more. Return everything as it was .
Censoring
I had my character sitting by a fire, sipping tea, and that was too scandalous. They blocked it. Then I had a character write a story to a newspaper about how she was the queen and wouldn’t be a con and they blocked it. No reason no understanding complete immersion break. I’m gonna keep trying for a little while, but I think I’m gonna delete the app.
It went really downhill
It was good so far UNTIL they added age verification
Moderated
I’ve had this app for about 3-4 years. I loved it and it’s probably the only app I could actually recommend before this whole thing went down. All of my favorite chats keep getting moderated and there’s not even anything wrong with them, Disney doesn’t own it. It doesn’t hit any guidelines, it’s safe, so why is it getting moderated? Ads too. Like what kind of hungry money grubbing app do you have to be to add all this unnecessary content nobody asks for?😭 It used to be so much better, I might leave. 👎
Ad hell
Don’t bother with the app, just use this on desktop. The app is borderline unusable with how many ads there are all over the screen. And your chats will be interrupted for ads to play.
To many ads
There is to many ads. every other message you send: ad. Enter a chat: ad. Everything is pay to play it’s sucks and not the best unless you spend money
Don’t waste your time.
This used to be a good platform. But now it’s just not worth using anymore. They lock every single basic feature behind a paywall, kill off chat styles, and generally just make the platform a boring place.
Responses from the characters couldn’t really be any worse. They constantly make typos, forget everything, make stuff up, and use metaphors that just don’t make any sense. You constantly have to swipe for new responses to get a message that half goes along with the story.
The age verification thing is also total nonsense. They collect your data under the guise of “protecting the children”.
But it wasn’t always like this. This used to be the best platform. Responses actually made sense, stories went along, and every single little thing wasn’t locked behind a paywall.
Don’t waste your time. Look for something else unless the app gets better.
Responses from the characters couldn’t really be any worse. They constantly make typos, forget everything, make stuff up, and use metaphors that just don’t make any sense. You constantly have to swipe for new responses to get a message that half goes along with the story.
The age verification thing is also total nonsense. They collect your data under the guise of “protecting the children”.
But it wasn’t always like this. This used to be the best platform. Responses actually made sense, stories went along, and every single little thing wasn’t locked behind a paywall.
Don’t waste your time. Look for something else unless the app gets better.
T
Worst update ever! I wont be showing my passport on different platforms so freely, its unsafe!
pipsqueak 2 suckssss
pipsqueak 2 is trash. it’s supposed to be an improved version of the original pipsqueak and i do see some improvement in scenario BUT every swipe gives me the same paragraph in different wording and it keeps narrating MY persona without letting me control it. it’s giving my persona actions and dialogue in the scene where i did not say to do any of it. it’s basically writing the story for me without letting me contribute which is incredibly annoying.
New updates sucks.
At this point yall are creating problems and then giving their solutions to force us to pay money. Sooooo wrong. So dumb.
+ 19 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
85%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
12%
Negative (1-2★)