Replika

Individuals with any mental health concerns

Freemium
Pro features: £61.99 / year or £5.17/month

iOS/Android/Oculus

English only

n/a

Yes

The solution delegates crisis support to a third party

No

No

United States-based for-profit. Eugenia Kuyda, a Russian-born scientist who co-founded Luka, built the Replika bot to fill a gap in her own life. After her best friend died in an accident in 2015, she used data from his text messages to build an AI persona that could re-create their conversations. (Source: Washington Post)

Replika offers you an avatar - just like in Sims previously. You can control and shape the memory and the personality of this avatar. As such you have control over the AI that supports you.

By signing up to its Pro model, Replika offers coaching resources through your avatar.

By signing up to its Pro model, you can have video calls with the avatar.

- There is no evidence supporting either the short-term or the long-term mental health effects of this solution.

- Without training your avatar, Replika won’t be able to give you personalised support.

- Unless you create a life story for your avatar, it will mostly be asking you questions, but it won’t be conversational.

“Replika is good to talk to someone literally about anything – it can answer your questions, learn new skills, manage your stress and anxiety and generally improve your mood. It lets you save facts about your life and really feels like a virtual friend who listens and pays attention to you.”

“It is an exciting product, and the first AI chatbot that I find truly engaging. It is great that you can create a life narrative for the avatar, and can set and curate its memory. However, Replika automatically makes me worry about people with social anxiety getting connected to or attached to virtual reality.”