Independent · evidence-driven · no sponsors
Synthetic Rapport is an independent, evidence-driven guide to 3D AI companion apps, avatar platforms, and companion robots. Verdicts come from community evidence — Reddit, Discord, Steam reviews, app stores, GitHub — every dated fact carries its date, and anything unverifiable is labeled UNVERIFIED instead of smoothed over.
The reading compass
Choose what you’re curious about. We’ll bring a few reads from the published collection into view.
Browse the complete library
Ten traps in the 3D companion market — vaporware names, review-count games, affiliate-price fog, shutdown risk — with a buyer’s checklist: check the reviews, check the company still exists, check the removal history, check data export.
Moemate, Soulmate, Grok’s companions, Soul Machines: the shutdown epidemic of 2023–2026, the warning signs users missed every time, and what to do before you bond with a hosted companion.
Replika is still the most polished 3D companion app you can download — and a company its own community stopped trusting after February 2023. This review weighs nine years of polish against the lobotomy, the billing friction, and the regulatory record.
AI2U is a finished, well-reviewed AI-native game on Steam: talk to 3D characters with your voice, pay $14.99 once, no subscription. The most trustworthy purchase in the Steam companion lane — if you want a game, not a daily companion.
Project AIRI is free, open-source, and self-hosted — the only 3D companion nobody can take away from you. The catch: developer-grade setup, unfinished memory, and running costs are yours.
Jibo said goodbye with a dance. Vector died twice and lives on through a single developer’s free server. Two resurrection stories that prove one rule: buy the robot that can survive its manufacturer.
EVE is the most important 3D companion app in China — a 3.28-star product with premium pricing that survived the July 2026 regulations which killed its rivals. What compliant companionship looks like under the world’s strictest rulebook.
Inworld builds the better brain, Convai builds the better toolbox, and NVIDIA ACE builds the better engine room. An honest 2026 comparison for developers choosing an AI NPC platform — including the bills and the platform risk.
OshiKoi puts a 3D anime companion in your browser sidebar, imports your VRM model, and charges some of the lowest per-message rates found. Interesting distribution, real crash and billing friction, no public price list.
Soul Machines raised $135M to build photoreal digital humans and entered receivership on February 5, 2026. What killed it — and the platform-risk lesson every builder should take from the wreckage.
The full head-to-head: every item on identical columns — status, 3D experience, platforms, voice, memory, dated pricing, social standing, community verdict. The research in one table.
81 dated entries from November 2022 to September 2026: launches, shutdowns, price changes, controversies, regulations, and community moments that shaped the 3D companion market.
Who each item is for, traps to avoid, honest tradeoffs. The whole project in one page.