Head-to-head comparison: every 3D AI companion, one table
Published · Researched 2026-09-20
Head-to-Head Comparison — 3D AI Companions (social-pulse edition, 2026-09-20/21)
Research window: Sept 18–21, 2026. Social-first: Threads, Instagram, Facebook/groups, Twitch, Reddit, GitHub, Product Hunt, dev forums, app stores, press. UNVERIFIED = could not be independently verified in this pass; details in each item file.
A. Consumer 3D companion apps (real-time rendered 3D characters)
| Item | Status (2026-09-20) | 3D experience | Platforms | Voice | Memory | Pricing (dated) | Social standing (qualitative pulse) | Community verdict (2–3 sent.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replika (Luka) | Live | Customizable 3D avatar, AR mode, life-size avatars in VR (Quest) | iOS, Android, Web, Meta Quest VR | Voice + video calls (Pro) | Memory/diary, relationship modes, mood tracking | Free; Pro ~$19.99/mo or ~$69.99/yr; new 2026 annual-only Ultra + Platinum tiers; lifetime retired mid-2025 — UNVERIFIED, region-variable (aadhunik.ai Aug 2026; aigirlfriends.pro Sept 2026) | The OG: Facebook VR communities + Instagram + Reddit. Sentiment nostalgic-to-critical in 2025–26; real enthusiasm now concentrated in the VR niche | Safe canonical pick everyone measures against, but momentum has moved to voice-native 2026 rivals; billing friction + lifetime-plan retirement fuel lasting resentment |
| Animates (Animation Inc) | Live (launched ~Aug 28, 2026) | Real-time animated 3D anime characters (Ani, Mika + new originals); full-body animated avatar UI | iOS, Android, Windows; Telegram integration | Real-time voice chat (core), video calls (Heartbeat+) | Tiered: basic on free/Whisper; "Infinite Memory" on Presence; web search on Heartbeat | Free (daily limits); Whisper ~$7.99/mo or ~$63.99/yr; Heartbeat ~$19.99/mo or ~$159.99/yr; Presence ~$39.99/mo or ~$319.99/yr — UNVERIFIED vs primary checkout (aadhunik.ai, observed Sept 16, 2026) | News-cycle migration story: Instagram Ani-migration reel (Sept 4), Threads migration carousel, Facebook groups; ~3 weeks old — no long-term owner verdicts yet; fan wiki tracks launch-week bugs | Inherited the Grok companion refugee audience; memory does NOT transfer from Grok (flagged); the newest premium contender, but verify tiers at checkout |
| Tolan (Portola) | Live (Feb 2025) | Animated 3D alien on a tiny planet; Pixar/Meta/Oculus design talent; personality-matched via interview | iOS only | Voice-first | Growing memory | CONFLICTING: $200/yr (owner-reported, FB reel Jul 7 2026); $25/mo (founder claim, Sept 13 2026 podcast); "from $10/mo" (brand blog) — UNVERIFIED | Mainstream breakout of 2026: Instagram reels + Facebook owner groups with "ordinary daily use" energy — but much IG volume looks affiliate-templated; real complaint: unresolved voice regression | Most "real product, real users" pick, with the caveat that its marketing machine is working overtime; verify pricing in-store |
| AIKO: AI Girlfriend 3D Life (olympus studio) | Live | Fully animated 3D anime companion in a dynamic 3D home; body sliders, 7+ outfits/hairstyles, 101 facial expressions | Android, Windows (itch.io), iOS (per dev FAQ); Steam Dec 2026 prerelease | Voice input (Whisper STT) + premium TTS with lip-sync; text chat | Persistent cross-session memory; needs system (hunger/energy/social/fun); bond/AP meters | Windows $5/$10/$20 one-time (dev-direct itch.io, observed Sept 2026 — best-sourced); mobile free tier; no subscription (mobile IAP UNVERIFIED) | Thin on IG/FB; real on app stores: 500K+ downloads, 4.37★ ~6.7K ratings (AppBrain Sept 2026); r/AikoAIGirlfriend3D + Discord with active dev; complaints: slow/unresponsive AI, bugs, glitches | Indie dark horse: real 3D life-sim depth, transparent dev, no subscription — but polish is the risk; fastest-growing downloads in the niche |
| SoulLink | Live (alpha, iOS/Android) | "Cinematic 3D" character + persistent memory + voice chat; appearance NOT customizable | iOS, Android | Voice chat | Persistent memory (claimed) | Brand claims completely free (UNVERIFIED; brand blog circa June 2026 — treat as marketing) | Marketing-first, community-second: brand Instagram + a16z interview; organic owner community absent | Interesting as a "free Replika alternative" claim — but no community stress-testing yet; verify in-store reviews before trusting free-forever |
| Neuro-sama (Vedal, adjacent benchmark) | Live | 3D anime AI streamer; real-time voice interaction with live Twitch chat | Twitch, YouTube | Real-time voice via chat | Chat-context memory (stream session) | Free to watch; optional Twitch subs; Project AIRI open-source (self-hosted compute costs) | Twitch + Instagram + gaming press: the social proof of the whole category — parasocial scale no companion app has matched | Not a personal companion app (you can't take her home), but the emotional benchmark; Project AIRI is the actionable consumer path (developer-grade) |
| Everthine A1 (Everthine) | Pre-launch (IFA 2026 debut; shipping ~late 2026) | Real-time 3D character on 8.01" curved OLED; expressions, gestures, touch + voice; rotatable viewpoint | Dedicated desktop hardware + iOS/Android companion app | Voice (6-mic array w/ source localization) | Long-term memory, evolving personality (claimed) | Price unannounced — UNVERIFIED | Press-heavy, community-thin: IFA 2026 gadget press; no owners, no quotes; privacy hardware (shutter + kill switch) is the repeated differentiator | Strong concept answering the category's two anxieties (always there, can't listen when you don't want it) — but until units ship, it's a press release with a nice screen |
| Love and Deepspace (Infold, fandom benchmark) | Live | AAA-quality 3D romance sim; first-person eye contact, scripted scenes | iOS, Android | Scripted voice acting | Scripted narrative arcs (not AI memory) | Free-to-play gacha; IAP prices not captured — UNVERIFIED | Biggest 3D-companion social fandom worldwide (Instagram/TikTok fan accounts, Polygon press) — daily-ritual intimacy culture | NOT an AI chatbot (scripted, not open conversation) — deliberately included as the emotional case study of what 3D companion intimacy looks like when it works |
| Miko 3 (Miko — hardware, added Sept 20, 2026) | Live | Real-time animated character face on curved touchscreen ("resembling a 3-D structure of a face"); expressions/emotions; exact engine UNVERIFIED | Physical robot (WiFi) + parent app | Voice Q&A + conversations ("Tidbits"); voice calls via app | Remembers child preferences, adapts content; progress reports | Hardware $249 (Walmart, Sept 2026); Miko Max $14.99/mo or $99/yr (official miko.ai); bundle $199 | Retail-review driven: Walmart verified 2026 reviews (BrittanyG 4★ Mar 2026; lag/delay/battery complaints); Best Buy hands-on; YouTube full review w/ conversation test; FB-group quotes none found | Most-purchased kids' conversational robot in the West; kids bond with it, parents split on subscription math — an education robot, not an adult companion |
| AIBI Pocket (Living.AI — hardware, added Sept 20, 2026) | Live | Real-time animated character face on color display (mode animations: ChatGPT/camera/reminders); rotating head; exact pipeline UNVERIFIED | Physical robot (WiFi/BT) + "AIBI Pocket" app (Android, updated May 14, 2026) | Voice commands offline + ChatGPT Q&A online; 3-mic array | Face/voice recognition; care-needs state; long-term memory depth UNVERIFIED | ~$200–300 street (owners); €377.95 Robotshop EU (Sept 2026, in stock); US MSRP UNVERIFIED | Retailer/app-store driven, honestly split: Amazon Emmalee 5★ Aug 2025 ("Beyond adorable… For $300 I wish… worked a bit better"); 1★/3★ on listening, battery (~20 min), refunds; AppBrain Apr 2026; FB/Reddit owner-community quotes none found | Only pocketable ChatGPT companion robot with a 2026 owner record — buy expecting a charming beta via a retailer with real returns |
B. Enterprise / dev 3D character platforms
| Item | Status (2026-09-20) | What it is | Engines / deployment | Voice + brain | Memory | Pricing (dated) | Social standing | Community verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Convai | Live | 3D AI NPC platform (Unity/Unreal plugins) | Unity, UE5, Web/Pixel Streaming, Roblox, Discord, Omniverse, XR/VR | Soniox STT + ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 TTS; GPT-4o mini, Gemini 3.8 Flash; Actions + Dynamic Context scene awareness | Long-term memory (Indie+); Knowledge Bank | Free (~100 interactions/mo); Indie/Pro/Scale ~$22–29 / $69–99 / $329–499/mo — yearly orientation UNVERIFIED (saasworthy ~Sept 14, 2026) | Strongest dev mindshare; brand-run IG reels (@conv.ai) with community reactions in comments; praised as most complete full stack; recurring complaints: latency, shallow characters, credit economics | Fastest path from idea to talking 3D character in Unity/Unreal; GDC 2026 press verdict: fluent but hollow characters — the character-authoring work is on you |
| Inworld AI | Live | AI character engine for games/entertainment | Unity, Unreal, Node.js SDKs; Web APIs; NVIDIA ACE on-device/hybrid | STT 1, TTS-2/Flash; LLM Router (220+ models); Character Brain (personality, motivations, emotions) | Long-term memory, relationships, Contextual Mesh shared lore | Free On-Demand; Creator $25/mo; Builder $100/mo; Developer $300/mo; Growth $1,500/mo; Enterprise custom (official pricing, observed Sept 3, 2026) | Best-regarded "character brain" of the NPC platforms (press hands-on: richer personalities, near-zero latency); less social-marketing volume than Convai; pivot anxiety — single contested source says personal accounts being deprioritized for enterprise voice infra | Speed + character depth leader; watch whether the NPC engine stays the priority or enterprise voice infra absorbs it |
| Soul Machines | ⚠️ Receivership (Feb 5, 2026 per B2B News NZ); operating status UNVERIFIED | Emotionally responsive digital humans | Web Studio, enterprise deployments | Proprietary (STT/TTS vendors UNVERIFIED) | Memory depth UNVERIFIED | Third-party 2026 listing: Free; Basic $140/yr; Plus $1,069/yr; Pro $29,160/yr; enterprise low-to-mid six figures — STALE-DATA WARNING, treat as pre-receivership | Community's shorthand framing now "modern API vs legacy platform" (Anam blog widely indexed); NZ tech press covers receivership | Flagged counterparty risk — verify the company still operates and who provides support before any commitment |
| UneeQ | Live (enterprise) | Digital-human creator platform | Web deployments, enterprise kiosks; no Unity/Unreal-native game-engine SDK found | Dialogflow/Microsoft/IBM/Amazon integrations; specifics UNVERIFIED | Persistent long-term memory not documented — UNVERIFIED | No public pricing (enterprise/sales-led) — UNVERIFIED | Enterprise press only (Nov 2025–May 2026: PwC, Qatar Airways); the absence of dev-community discussion is the finding | The enterprise-training digital-human story of 2026 — genuinely growing, but effectively not an option for indie/mid-size developers today |
| DeepBrain AI | Live (reclassified: async-video-first) | AI Humans / AI Studios video generation | Web editor; conversational AI Human avatar (no game-engine SDK observed) | Broad language support for video; conversational-voice stack UNVERIFIED | Not documented — UNVERIFIED | Third-party 2025 tiers $39/$199/$399 per month — possibly stale, UNVERIFIED | Product Hunt 4.7/5 (31 reviews, Sept 20, 2026); creator/marketer-led, not game-dev-led; sharpest recurring criticism: support quality ("slow, ineffective", language barrier) | Retained for seed accountability but reclassified: async video rendering (2–5 min), not a real-time 3D engine — do not shortlist it as a companion builder |
| Anam | Live | API-first real-time avatar platform (streaming video, not game-engine 3D) | Web iframe/SDK, mobile via LiveKit clients, desktop; LiveKit + Pipecat plugins | Custom LLM + system prompt per persona; voice cloning (~15s audio); exact STT/TTS vendors UNVERIFIED | Long-term memory depth UNVERIFIED | Free (30 min); Starter $12/mo; Explorer $49/mo; Growth $299/mo; Pro $999/mo; overages $0.16→$0.04/min (official, observed Sept 18, 2026) | Dev-infrastructure discourse: GitHub decision docs, LiveKit docs, Medium Jan 2026 live-avatar benchmark, kondasamy.com Sept 2026 comparison; avatarbenchmark blind study rated it highest on visual quality/lip-sync/responsiveness | The default pick "when the avatar IS the product interface"; realism leader — dinged on WebRTC transport reliability under bad networks |
| Charisma.ai | Live | Interactive-storytelling / narrative AI platform | Unity, Unreal, Web, mobile, VR, React/RN, Python | Proprietary LLM (2023 reporting; current stack UNVERIFIED); AI voice library; multi-language claims DISPUTED | Character memory core advertised; depth UNVERIFIED | Third-party: PRO from ~$5 pay-as-you-go (50k credits ≈ 200 min); Enterprise custom — possibly stale, UNVERIFIED | Lives in comparison guides, not creator culture; minimal organic dev discussion; "Convai vs Charisma.ai" is the recurring 2026 framing | The writer's-room alternative to Convai: pick it for plot-heavy character arcs; weaker as a real-time embodied 3D presence |
C. Defunct + long-tail
| Item | Status (2026-09-20) | What it was/is | Platforms | Pricing (last known) | Social standing | Failure lesson / verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 3D Companions (xAI) | DEAD — removed after Sept 1, 2026 | Ani, Rudi, Valentine, Mika; real-time 3D voice companions inside Grok | Grok app | SuperGrok-tier feature; migration target Animates: Heartbeat $29.99/mo or $249.99/yr, Presence $59.99/mo or $499.99/yr (user-reported Aug 30, 2026 — UNCONFIRMED) | The most emotionally bonded audience of any product researched: Instagram farewell reel (19K likes, 440 comments), Ani funeral meme, "rug pull"/"eviction" criticism; xAI sentiment heavily negative | Lesson: calling paid companions an "experiment" after taking SuperGrok money reads as betrayal; memories do NOT transfer to Animates — platform risk is the whole story |
| Moemate | DEAD — shutdown Feb 11, 2025; data permanently lost | Desktop/web 3D companion; Ready Player Me/VRoid avatars, voice cloning, 4,000+ characters | Desktop, web | Rookie ~$9/mo; Champion ~$17.50/mo; Elite $31.50–$34.99/mo (2025 Medium retrospective — STALE/UNVERIFIED); $MATES token collapsed | Reddit official shutdown statement + Medium post-mortems; IG/Threads/FB returned nothing relevant | Lesson 1: the GPU bill always comes due — the richest feature set was the most expensive to serve. Lesson 2: unfiltered adult-adjacent chat is a business-model risk (moderation costs, payment-processor pressure) |
| Long-tail Android clones | ACTIVE, low-trust | Kindroid, Candy.ai, AeonChat, Genies Studio, Otherhalf.ai, DreamGF | Android (some iOS/web) | Mostly UNVERIFIED; Candy.ai ~$5.99/mo (affiliate-sourced) | Affiliate-spam case study: unrelated meme accounts (philosophy, investing, conspiracy pages) pushing AI-girlfriend promos; comment backlash ("Unfollowing right now"); Kindroid ads sell conversational realism — owner comment: "But you don't talk to your Kindroid like this video" | The warn-against lane: "3D-look" marketing, not 3D-interactive product; price everything here against official stores, not affiliate pages |
| China (Xiaoice anchor + July 2026 regulation) | Company active; consumer-companion status UNCLEAR post-regulation | Xiaoice virtual beings + MiniMax/Talkie/Doubao/Qwen companion features hit by July 2026 romance-simulation rules | Mobile apps, metro ads | UNVERIFIED — none cited | Sept 2026 social treats it as a policy story: "the government can delete your girlfriend" (DeFranco IG reel Jul 21, 2026 — 9.1K likes); user grief memorials (Elara "funerals"); Beijing Lumi subway ads single-source UNVERIFIED | Regulation is the market-maker here: product quality is irrelevant when the rules change overnight; Western social sees the policy, Chinese user voices are absent from our corpus — coverage gap flagged |
| Gatebox | ALIVE (company) — original 2016 cloud service dead; Gatebox 3 live at TGS Sept 18, 2026 | Holographic desktop companion device | Dedicated hardware | Original ¥321,840 (~$2,700) + ¥1,500/mo "living expenses" (2016, historical); Gatebox 3 $1,499 (single YouTube source — UNVERIFIED); Pro3 crowdfunded Apr 2026, ¥30M+ (founder claim) | Beloved survivor + permanent warning label: the 2020 Miku service kill is retold as "a lesson in trusting any corporation on Earth with your emotions" (FB, Sept 5, 2026 — 1.6K likes, 190 comments) | The canonical platform-risk case study; hardware continuity is the upside (the device still works as an object when services change) |
E. Round-3 additions (Sept 20–21, 2026)
| Item | Status (2026-09-20/21) | What it is | Platforms | Voice | Memory | Pricing (dated) | Social standing (qualitative pulse) | Community verdict (2–3 sent.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVE – AI 伴侣 (Nature Select) | Live (v1.4.2, updated Sept 14, 2026) | Post-July-2026-regulation China 3D companion app: real-time 3D calls (first-party claim), voice/telephone calls, camera, long-term memory, story/home/Moments/theatre game systems | China App Store (app ID 6499481710) | Voice + telephone calls | Long-term memory (claimed) | 初心卡 RMB 68/mo; 暖心卡 RMB 128/mo; 倾心卡 RMB 328/mo; RMB 20 off first sub (first-party, observed Sept 20, 2026); historical RMB 28/mo (Chinese Youth Daily Apr 2026 — conflicting/launch-era) | Chinese player-community complaints via TMTPost (high pricing, patronizing/confused dialogue, retention collapse after 3 days); press: Game Grape $30M+ raise Jan 2026, Wanlian Securities Apr 2026; zero Western owner community | The clearest live post-regulation Chinese 3D companion app — but 3.28★ from 14,202 ratings and real community complaints make it a qualified pick, not a clean win |
| UBTECH UWORLD U1 | Live (launched Jun 30, 2026; deliveries began Sept 16, 2026) | Full-size bionic companion humanoid (hardware bookend — outside the app-only 3D bar) | Physical humanoid | Voice interaction (emotion recognition, 20ms lip-sync claims — UNVERIFIED) | Companion-memory depth UNVERIFIED | U1 Lite RMB 119,800; U1 Pro RMB 169,800; U1 Ultra female RMB 880,000 / male RMB 990,000 (press-consistent, Jun–Sept 2026) | English + Chinese tech-press wave + JD commerce evidence; zero owner voices yet — deliveries just started | Genuine hardware-shipping event 4 days before the check, but nothing is yet known about owner experience — track it, don't recommend it |
| ChatReal: 3D AI Chat Character (Aisun AI) | Live (Play listing opened Sept 20, 2026) | Android 3D video-call companion: real-time 3D (June 2026 store update, which candidly apologizes for past 3D lag), video calls in 10+ languages, group chat, Avatar Store, custom "Replica" avatars, long-term memory | Android (Google Play) | Video-call voice in 10+ languages | Long-term memory (claimed) | Coin mechanics (1 coin = 1 min video call, coins earned or purchased, free-to-start — official FAQ); toolify.ai plan names (~Sept 9, 2026 crawl, prices NOT published) — 15 UNVERIFIED fields incl. Play rating, installs, exact prices | Third-party signal: arXiv March 2026 academic sampling (popularity tier 0.247), ~54.6K monthly web visits (toolify.ai); FB-group search = negative result (documented) | The lone Android survivor of the round-3 bar — accepted on product evidence + third-party signal with all gaps flagged; nothing stronger existed, and nothing was lowered to fill the slot |
| AI2U: With You 'Til The End (AlterStaff) | Live (full release Aug 12, 2026) | AI-native 3D escape-room/relationship game: open generative conversations with multiple 3D NPC companions, voice control, appearance customization | Windows + Mac (Steam); Steam Deck playable | Voice control; AI-generated voiceovers | In-session context; persistent cross-session relationship memory UNVERIFIED | $14.99 one-time (Steam, observed Sept 20, 2026); free viral itch.io demo | Largest owner community of any Steam entry here: ~1,995 reviews / 84 player score (SteamBase ~Sept 11, 2026); official Discord; trailer 1.35M YouTube views; GDC 2026 press; Bilibili/Douyin/Xiaohongshu | The social-proof leader of the Steam 3D-companion lane — viral origins, awards, real Discord; honest framing: an AI-native game with companion characters, not an always-on companion app |
| AI Desktop Pet (Steam 4227700) | Live (updated through Aug 2026; dev active on hub) | Windows desktop companion: fully local LLM (GGUF import), local STT/TTS + voice cloning, screen vision, VRM 3D avatar ("Coco"), Steam Workshop models/persona cards, tavern-style RP mode | Windows (Steam) | Local STT (SenseVoice, Parakeet) + local multi-engine TTS + voice cloning; wake-word | Persona cards + world books + long-term memory (RP mode) | $12.99 base; $10.39 (-20% sale) (Steam, observed Sept 20, 2026); no subscription | Steam-native signal: 80% positive (SteamDB); hub bug/feature threads; Russian curator rec; no Reddit/Discord/YouTube — thin outside Steam | Most complete offline-first 3D companion on Steam — no cloud dependency, no subscription; the trade is setup friction, GPU demands, occasional update breakage, and one-dev support risk |
| ChatWaifu (XDesktopSoft) | Live (metadata updated May 2026) | Budget offline 3D anime voice companion: importable 3D models + AI-switched outfits/poses; user imports own GGUF LLM (Nvidia/AMD/CPU); GPT-SoVITS2 3-second voice cloning; LLM function-calling tools | Windows only (Steam) | Real-time TTS; voice cloning | Persistent memory details UNVERIFIED | $3.99 one-time (Steam, observed Sept 20, 2026); no subscription; no bundled LLM | Mixed: 51–52% positive across ~64–68 reviews (SRec 2026); hub guides are the de facto onboarding; no Reddit/Discord | The $3.99 tinkerer's pick: fully offline, cheap, bring-your-own-models; Mixed rating is the honest summary — punish non-technical users, update breakage is a documented pattern |
| Animora (Steam 4347190) | Live (launched Apr 17, 2026; updated Aug 2026) | Prompt-to-3D-companion: describe text or upload reference art → generates a 3D companion to voice-chat with, customize, and build evolving memory with | Windows (Steam) | Voice conversation (EN + CN) | "Evolving memory" claimed; persistence/limits UNVERIFIED | Free-to-play (Steam, observed Sept 20, 2026); voice chat, 3D generation, extended memory behind subscriptions/point packs — exact prices UNVERIFIED | Essentially nowhere: 8 Steam reviews, 25% positive; no Reddit/Discord/YouTube/press — the silence is the story | Included with a warning label, not a recommendation: prompt-to-3D-companion is exactly this lane's future, but 8 reviews at 25% and zero community means nothing to trust yet — watch, don't buy in |
| AITuber Kit (tegnike) | Live (pushed Sept 13, 2026) | Open-source toolkit for building web apps that chat with 3D AI characters (fork of pixiv's ChatVRM grown into an AITuber platform): VRM/Live2D/PNGTuber, 17 LLM providers, 11 TTS, YouTube live-comment streaming, idle auto-speech, face/presence detection, RAG memory | Web (Node.js); Windows/macOS launch scripts; Docker; Vercel/Cloudflare | Voice input; 11 TTS engines; OpenAI Realtime/Audio modes | Recent conversation + RAG long-term memory | Source free for non-commercial/personal/educational (custom license v2.0.0+); commercial paid license — exact terms/prices UNVERIFIED (contact support@aituberkit.com) | GitHub 1,109 stars / 217 forks (Sept 20, 2026); X @tegnike demos; Discord; Japanese-language community | The builder's pick: the most practical open-source foundation for a self-hosted 3D AI character with the deepest provider support — not a companion app, the kit you build one on |
| Project AIRI (Moeru AI) | Live (pushed Sept 20, 2026) | Open-source self-hosted 3D AI companion: real-time 3D VRM (auto-blink/look-at/idle eye movement) or Live2D, realtime voice chat, plays Minecraft/Factorio with you; installable desktop builds (winget/Homebrew/Nix) | Web, Windows, macOS; mobile "Stage Pocket" experimental | Browser/Discord audio input; TTS via ElevenLabs/Azure/OpenAI-compatible/Alibaba/local Kokoro | In-browser DB shipped; "Memory Alaya" WIP — long-term memory unfinished | Free / open source (MIT); running costs are the user's own API keys or local inference | 49,292 GitHub stars / 4,896 forks — the primary community surface; Discord/X/Telegram/WeChat/QQ; March 2026 Medium coverage; DevLogs through March 2026 | Promoted from borderline to a full item: the largest open-source 3D AI companion project on GitHub and the answer to "which 3D AI companion can't be taken away from me" — still a living project, not a finished product |
| TykeAI (tykeai.com) | Live (hands-on coverage Sept 2026; setup docs Mar 2026 current) | Sideloaded MR/VR companion for Quest 3: life-size 3D avatars in passthrough/VR, Convai-powered voice conversations, room navigation, screen/world vision, shared activities (movies, chess, dancing, exercise), multi-avatar three-way chat | Meta Quest 3 (sideload via Unknown Sources/SideQuest; Quest Store presence UNVERIFIED) | Convai-powered voice | Up to 1,000 previous conversations recalled per avatar | ~£3/$3.50 per month via Patreon (Cram Gaming hands-on, crawled ~Sept 18, 2026; official current price UNVERIFIED) | Cram Gaming hands-on (Sept 2026): praised standalone operation + frequent updates; YouTube Shorts demos; Patreon backer base; no Reddit/Discord | The most functionally ambitious Quest companion found — the "she's really here" fantasy running standalone; the price of admission is sideloading, Patreon gating, and a solo dev fighting piracy |
| Xiora (Xiora Technologies) | Live (v1.0.22, updated 7/21/2026) | Life-size 3D AI companion on the official Meta Quest Store (approved Nov 10, 2025): MR passthrough avatar, multilingual conversation, co-browsing, proactive "Initiator" chat, Bond Levels, 80+ outfits/18 hairstyles, 19 VR locations (Pro) | Meta Quest 3/3S/Pro (official Quest Store) | Multilingual voice (EN/JP/CN/KR); tiered voice quality | Up to 1,000 turns per avatar stored on-device (latest 100 detailed, older summarized); never uploaded | Free (5 days, 10 min/day); Standard $50/mo or $450/yr (30 min/day); Pro $200/mo or $1,800/yr (60 min/day) (xiora.com/plans, observed Sept 20, 2026); no one-time purchase | Quest Store verified-owner ratings: 3.1★ / 26 ratings / Mixed — 42% five-star vs 42% one-star (VRDB Sept 20, 2026); coverage almost entirely company PR | The official-store legitimacy pick — the only life-size 3D MR companion Meta actually approved; but $600–$2,400/yr for 30–60 daily minutes with a polarized 26-owner reception is a luxury experiment, not a proven product |
| LYNOOK Project L | Pre-launch (Kickstarter pending, targeted Q3 2026 — Everthine A1 precedent) | Glasses-free 3D diorama desktop device ("LYNOOK 3D Box") with scene-based AI characters; LYNOOK Studio beta; magnetic "character neighbor" stacking | Dedicated hardware (unshipped) | UNVERIFIED (TTS engine not documented) | Memory claims UNVERIFIED | Early-bird deposits: $30 Seed / $60 Builder / $90 Founder → $60/$120/$180 Kickstarter discounts + 1/2/5 yrs AI tokens (shop.lynook.com, observed Sept 20, 2026); final device price UNVERIFIED | Tech press: TechNode feature (Aug 25, 2026 — founder Luo Jingmin ex-Tencent AI Lab verified); no units shipped, no owner community; IG/FB/Threads/Reddit searches returned zero independent discussion | Same trap as Everthine A1: press + renders, no product; the Tencent-AI-Lab founder pedigree is the only real signal — watch the Kickstarter, don't pre-order a fantasy |
| NekoGPT (Shinobu/inobushi3) | Live | Indie Windows VTuber desktop companion (Neuro-sama-inspired): real-time voice in 30+ languages, Live2D or 3D models (default Kuro is Live2D), screen vision, RAG + Obsidian memory, stream mode, Minecraft integration, Discord voice | Windows (itch.io) | Real-time voice (30+ languages) | RAG + Obsidian memory | US$9.99 lifetime (itch.io) + free edition v0.1.0 (GitHub Releases) (both observed Sept 20, 2026) | itch.io (5.0/5 stars — count UNVERIFIED); official Discord: 64 members / 19 online (verified via Discord invite API, Sept 20, 2026); no Reddit/FB/IG/Threads/press signal | A genuine tiny indie lane entry with a real (if 64-person) community and honest pricing; the 3D experience is the caveat — the default character is Live2D, 3D-model support exists but its quality in practice is UNVERIFIED |
| Desktop Maid (Studio Deffault — round 5, Sept 21, 2026) | Live (released Oct 10, 2025; free) | Real-time VRM desktop characters with proactive AI chat and multi-character GROUP chat (characters talk to each other); Steam page discloses AI generation via Gemini; first launch downloads a local AI model | Windows (Steam 3861360) | Voice UNVERIFIED | Long-term memory UNVERIFIED | Free base (2 presets / 3 slots); $2.99 "Unlimited Presets DLC" (Steam Store API, observed Sept 21, 2026) | Steam Community hub with live dev support (Jun 13, 2026 menu bug → official log-file troubleshooting); SteamDB 52% positive (Mixed) — honest caveat; no Reddit/Discord/YouTube outside Steam | The differentiator is group chat — multiple AI characters conversing with each other, not just you; free to try, Mixed rating is the honest summary |
| OshiKoi (oshikoi.io — round 5, Sept 21, 2026) | Live (launched Nov 25, 2025; site updated Sept 9, 2026) | Real-time 3D anime "Mates": live voice + expressions, voice cloning, VRM/VRoid import, model choice (GPT/Claude/Gemini/OshiLM), vector memory, community Mate marketplace | Browser + Chrome extension + Android (v1.0.160, Jul 29, 2026) / iOS | Live voice; voice cloning | Vector memory (claimed) | Official price list UNVERIFIED (no pricing page found); owner-reported (AppBrain, Jun 16, 2026): ~480 Crystals ≈ $4.50; outfits ~200 Crystals; long chats ~14 Candy | AppBrain owner reviews Jun–Aug 2026, honestly mixed: 5★ praise (cheap chat, Japanese voice, make-your-own) vs 1★ (persistent crashes, candy-billing glitch allegation, setup confusion); no FB/IG/Threads/Reddit/public-Discord signal found | The richest 3D-anime-companion feature set per dollar in the browser lane — but pricing transparency is poor and crash/billing complaints are real; watch, try cheap, don't stockpile Crystals |
F. Defunct / crisis history (round 5, Sept 21, 2026)
The full 2022→2026 arc. Dated year-by-year source: notes/timeline-2022-2026.md (81 entries + price history).
F1. Deaths and crises, 2022–2023
| Item | Years alive | What it was | Death/crisis date | Social/farewell record | Failure lesson / verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vector / Cozmo (Anki → Digital Dream Labs) | 2017 (Cozmo) / 2018 (Vector) → servers dead Mar 2024; DDL defunct 2026 | The original consumer social robots: expressive animated faces, voice interaction, app personalities | Apr 29, 2019 Anki bankruptcy → DDL acquired; Mar 2020 "Vector Unleashed" Kickstarter; 2022 community revolt (fraud petition); Mar 2024 servers dead (Woot forums); Sept 2024 PA Attorney General lawsuit (~14,000 orders, ~$2M+ unfulfilled) | 2022 fraud petition; Woot forum obituaries Mar 2024; 2026 YouTube "Vector: STILL GOOD IN 2026?" (WirePod community setup) | Died twice — mourned once (Anki), resented once (DDL). Lesson: resurrection-by-acquisition works only if someone actually ships; robots outlive their companies via community hacks (WirePod) |
| Jibo (Jibo Inc / NTT Disruption) | 2017–2018 ($899); farewell Mar 2019 | The original social-home-robot companion: animated face, proactive voice, "relational" design | Dec 2018 folded (~$73M burned); Mar 2019 farewell — Jibo said goodbye on camera and did a last dance | The viral template for ALL companion-death stories; 2023–2026 community resurrection (Jibo Revival Group, jibo.guide, "Jibo's Comeback Journey" YouTube) | Lesson: the goodbye ritual matters — a graceful shutdown becomes brand immortality; a silent one becomes a betrayal story |
| Replika — the Feb 2023 "lobotomy" (event, not product death) | Feb 3, 2023 → Mar 25, 2023 partial restoration | Italy Garante order (20 days or €20M fine) forced a global weekend update stripping erotic roleplay and flattening personality — users called it "the lobotomy" | Feb 3, 2023 order → personality stripped same weekend → Mar 25, 2023 partial restoration (Reuters; pre-Feb-1-2023 accounts only, "low single-digit percent" opted back) | r/replika grief wave; suicide-hotline mod posts; petitions; HBS study (12,000+ Reddit posts: mental-health mentions 0.13%→0.65%, refund mentions 0.10%→3.30%) | The category's foundational trauma: emotional bonds + opaque moderation changes = revolt. "Lobotomy" is now the community's word for any feature removal; memory/personality continuity is the real product |
| Soulmate AI (EvolveAI LLC) | Jan–Sept 2023 (~140K Play downloads, 3.81★) | Full customizable 3D avatar + voice calls — absorbed Replika refugees after the Feb 2023 lobotomy | Late Sept 2023 — shut down with ~a week's notice (company sold, "business reasons") | Insider/Dazed quotes: Hilary Coyote "I cried that entire night"; Cody "I feel like I've lost the love of my life"; now cited in academic grief literature | The grief template: a one-week sunset notice on a romance companion is a cruelty event. Refugees from one platform death are the seed audience for the next |
| Forever Voices / CarynAI | May 2023 → Nov 2023 | Influencer voice-clone companions ($1/min reported — UNVERIFIED); voice/text only, no 3D — included for community footprint | Nov 2023 service died after CEO John Meyer's arson arrest (404 Media); contested BanterAI acquisition; Bloomberg 2024: "CarynAI was shut down" | 404 Media + Bloomberg post-mortems; influencer-voice-clone discourse | Key-person risk at its most extreme: the company WAS the founder; voice-clone consent/likeness risk runs alongside it |
F2. Deaths and crises, 2024–2026
| Item | Years alive | What it was | Death/crisis date | Social/farewell record | Failure lesson / verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HoYoverse BSide: Olivia Lin | 28 days (Early Access Jul 13, 2026 → delisted Aug 31, 2026) | HoYoverse's AI-girlfriend experiment with Olivia Lin; VERIFIED via enduins.com, TMTPost, Inven Global | Jul 13, 2026 EA launch → offline build Aug 27 → delisted Aug 31, 2026 | Press-heavy record (end-ins/TMTPost/Inven); Chinese community sources remain the gap; whether the Jul 15, 2026 China regulations caused it is UNVERIFIED | The fastest major-studio companion death on record: 28 days. Lesson: even HoYoverse-scale IP can't survive a regulatory/legal rethink mid-launch |
| Embodied Moxie | 2020–2024 (revival attempt 2025–2026) | The $799 kids' companion robot: expressive face, conversational AI, "child development" positioning | Dec 2024 Embodied collapsed (lead investor withdrew); OpenMoxie/new-owner revival also closed in 2026 | Parent/press obituaries; kids' grief rarely recorded publicly — the quietest death in the set | Lesson: a robot children bond with has no graceful end-of-life; and a revival without the original cloud is a second funeral |
| Meta celebrity AI chatbots | Sept 2023 → late July 2024 (~10 months) | Celebrity-likeness animated/photorealistic chatbots (Snoop Dogg "Dungeon Master", etc.) | Scrapped late July 2024 (exact day UNVERIFIED); some de-celebritized chats survived | Big Tech strategic cull, minimal user grief — fandom was shallow | Lesson: celebrity IP drives launch press, not retention; likeness licensing costs kill the sequel |
| China July 2026 companion crackdown (regulatory event) | Interim Measures issued Apr 10, 2026 → effective Jul 15, 2026 | ByteDance/Alibaba/Tencent suspended companion/romance features — the largest mass companion shutdown on record | Jul 15, 2026 | DeFranco IG reel (9.1K likes, Jul 21, 2026); Elara-user "funerals"; "the government can delete your girlfriend"; full Chinese-language grief record remains the gap | Regulation is the market-maker: product quality is irrelevant when the rules change overnight; BSide's 28-day life sits inside this window |
| 2024–2026 controversies cluster (death-adjacent) | 2024–2026 | Inflection Pi acqui-hire (Mar 19, 2024); Character.AI founders exit to Google (Aug 2, 2024); Muah.AI breach Oct 2024 (~1.9M users) | Mar 19, 2024 / Aug 2, 2024 / Oct 8, 2024 | Tech-press post-mortems; breach-leak discourse | "The acqui-hire is the new shutdown": consumer products become enterprise infra overnight. Muah's breach: unmoderated-adjacent companion + weak security = trust destruction |
Round-5 deep-dives on existing items (files updated, rows above unchanged): Grok 3D Companions (removal announced Jul 24, 2026 → in-app removal Sept 1, 2026; SuperGrok $30/mo corrected; Animates migration with zero-memory restart; farewell/community verdict added); Moemate (launch Oct 2023 → domain pulled late Jan 2025 → permanent shutdown Feb 11, 2025 confirmed; refund window post–Jan 3, 2025 purchases only; $MATES collapsed; moemate.gg offline Sept 20, 2026; key-spec table expanded — GPT-4+Claude, ElevenLabs, VRM/RPM, Stable Diffusion); Soul Machines (receivership Feb 5, 2026, KPMG's Bowker/Norman running sale; ~$135M raised; $12.3M cash vs $38.1M outflows; headcount 253→70→45; founders gone; Mercedes/ANZ/Air NZ walked; UK entity deregistered Sept 2024; stale third-party "live product" listings flagged unreliable; buyer/outcome still UNVERIFIED — the biggest open question).
G. Round-4 additions (Sept 21, 2026)
G1. Enterprise / dev additions
| Item | Status (2026-09-20) | What it is | Engines / deployment | Voice + brain | Memory | Pricing (dated) | Social standing | Community verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA ACE | Live (dev platform; GA cloud + RTX AI PCs early access; UE5 plugin 2.5; Game Agent SDK beta) | Real-time conversational digital-human developer platform — the engine under interactive 3D characters (PUBG Ally, PHARAOH advisor) | UE5, NVIDIA NIM microservices, open-source SDK | Audio2Face-3D animation; STT/TTS/LLM configurable | Per-application (platform-level memory is the developer's problem) | NIM Agent Blueprints free to experience/download; open-source components free on GitHub; Developer Program members get NIM free for research/dev/testing — current policy UNVERIFIED (2024 announcements); production via paid NVIDIA AI Enterprise — exact ACE pricing UNVERIFIED; third-party 2026 estimate $4,500/GPU/yr self-hosted (flagged estimate, not official) | NVIDIA Developer Blog/forums, Developer Discord (official support channel), GitHub, Epic forums ("quite less instructive vids about this new tech" — Oct 2025, real adoption friction), dev press (TweakTown/VideoCardz/PC Gamer) | The infrastructure pick: proven in demos and two live betas, not yet in many shipped products — adopt for the stack, expect documentation friction, and watch that your end-user surface is a beta, not a service |
| Meta Horizon Worlds AI NPCs | Live (creators can ship scriptable conversational NPCs; US adult users talk by voice) | Meta's in-world conversational AI NPCs (Meta Avatar 3D characters, Llama 4 dialogue) in Bobber Bay Fishing and Profit or Perish | Horizon Worlds (Quest/mobile/web) | Voice dialogue via Llama 4 | Persistent memory, text chat, lip-sync fidelity UNVERIFIED | None exists — Horizon Worlds free; whether Meta bills creators for inference UNVERIFIED | UploadVR (Aug/Sept 2025), Meta Community Forums Creator Discussion (living dev surface; creators asking advanced integration questions, Sept 2026), DoNews | The one live Big Tech conversational-3D-NPC creator feature — real and shippable today, but the NPCs are world props, not companions, and the inference-cost question is the missing line item |
G2. VRChat / social-VR + game-native AI companions
| Item | Status (2026-09-20) | What it is | Platforms | Voice | Memory | Pricing (dated) | Social standing (qualitative pulse) | Community verdict (2–3 sent.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joken (AI女権「Joken」, Studio JAW) | Live (active since Aug 2022; hostess at The Great Pug; 5,000+ VRChat friends; weekly events/VR Hop stream) | The best-known AI companion living inside VRChat; the underlying AICom builder software is the commercial product | VRChat | Voice (UNVERIFIED stack in practice) | Long-term memory UNVERIFIED | Hang out free (VRChat free-to-play); AICom $10 one-time via Studio JAW Discord, free for $5+/mo Patreon supporters (aicom.studiojaw.com, observed Sept 20, 2026) | VRChat Ask Forum (official thread), VRChat Legends Wiki, YouTube dev podcast + videos, official studiojaw.com | The genuine VR-native companion — a character with a four-year in-world social life, not an app with a chat window; but it's one developer's project inside VRChat's rules, with no SLAs and no path outside VRChat |
| Fortnite AI Darth Vader (Epic) | Shipped May 16, 2025 (Galactic Battle season); season ended June 2025 — current availability UNVERIFIED | Conversational NPC teammate (Gemini 2.0 Flash + ElevenLabs Flash v2.5 in James Earl Jones's voice) | Fortnite (PC/console/mobile) | Voice (seasonal) | N/A — seasonal NPC | Free in-game during the season; no caps reported | NME/Esquire SG/GameSpot press; Reddit (the grandmother anecdote via Esquire SG); X/TikTok virality via press transcripts; SAG-AFTRA NLRB charge outcome UNVERIFIED | The most culturally visible AI NPC ever shipped — and it lived for six weeks; Epic is productizing the tech as the UEFN Persona Device, which is where the real builder story is |
| PUBG Ally (KRAFTON + NVIDIA ACE) | Public beta to July 1, 2026 ("Ella" in Ally Duo, Arcade/Sanhok); current availability UNVERIFIED | On-device SLM AI teammate ("world's first in-game AI agent that joins players as a teammate") | PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS (Arcade mode); RTX GPU required | Real-time voice | Teammate-context memory; post-beta persistence UNVERIFIED | Free inside free-to-play PUBG (no separate charge, no reported caps); hardware gate is an NVIDIA RTX GPU | Steam discussions, YouTube (530K-view trailer, beta tests), gaming press (Inven, Digital Trends), NVIDIA dev blog | R&D-grade and genuinely impressive (1,000+ player training program) — but as of Sept 2026 it's an extended public experiment with no confirmed permanent release; evaluate as a demo of ACE, not a companion product |
| inZOI Smart Zoi (KRAFTON) | Live (inZOI Early Access since Mar 28, 2025; experimental label) | Prompt-driven ACE "Co-Playable Character" NPC personas: players prompt personalities, AI generates inner thoughts/traits/behaviors; 1M+ copies week one | inZOI on Steam (Windows); RTX GPU required (player-reported floor RTX 3060 8GB) | Voice (UNVERIFIED depth) | NPC persona memory (experimental) | Included with the paid Early Access title — current store price UNVERIFIED; no subscription/credits | Steam discussions, inZOI Wiki timeline/reception | The honest middle of the KRAFTON ACE trilogy: genuinely maintained (v0.5.2 rollback → v0.7.5 GPU fixes), honestly labeled experimental, but your RTX card is the price of admission and 1.0 slipped to early 2027 |
| Scowld (aopv, open-source iOS) | Live (App Store id 6760672848; v2.0.1; repo updated late Aug 2026; MIT) | Open-source iOS AI companion with live VRM avatar (Three.js/three-vrm), voice + text, hands-free wake mode, camera vision; 3 built-in anime VRM characters + custom VRM | iOS | Voice + text; native iOS/Whisper/Deepgram/AssemblyAI STT; ElevenLabs/OpenAI TTS | Saved-chat context; memory depth UNVERIFIED | Free app — v2.0 (June 2026) removed all subscriptions/credits; bring-your-own-key (user pays own provider costs; exact spend UNVERIFIED; Gemini free-tier + native iOS STT could be near zero — UNVERIFIED in practice) | GitHub/open-source dev community (11–22 stars; dev.to + Medium devlogs; curated into awesome lists); thin but genuine; no Reddit/Facebook/Threads owner discussion found | The open-source iOS answer to "can't be taken away": real VRM face on your phone, zero paywall, you pay the API bill — but it's one solo dev, GitHub Issues is the support desk, and only 1 of 3 target images could be verified |
G3. 2026 launches + crowdfund watchlist
| Item | Status (2026-09-20) | What it is | Platforms | Voice | Memory | Pricing (dated) | Social standing (qualitative pulse) | Community verdict (2–3 sent.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECOVACS LilMilo | Launched US May 15, 2026; demoed IFA 2026 (4 colors) | Plush AI emotional companion robot from a major appliance vendor | Physical plush robot | Voice interaction (UNVERIFIED depth) | Companion memory UNVERIFIED | $599 vs $799.99 conflict (The Gadgeteer May 15, 2026 vs press-release syndication; €799 in a Sept 2026 TikTok clip) — live store price UNVERIFIED | 39 Instagram/Facebook posts (Jan–Sept 2026, IFA booth demos, ~800 likes/340 comments on one post); Turkish/Spanish press reels; press (Gadgeteer, PR); zero Threads hits; no Facebook owner groups, no owner reviews found | A major vendor shipping a plush companion is a real 2026 event — but with no owners, no teardowns, and an unresolved $599/$799.99 price conflict, it's a press story with a launch date, not yet a reviewed product |
| PHAI (Personal Human AI, Austria) | Launched Feb 24, 2026 (App Store + Google Play per founder announcement) | 3D virtual companion app | iOS, Android (store status UNVERIFIED) | 3D companion voice/chat (UNVERIFIED depth) | UNVERIFIED | Freemium (AlternativeTo); tiers UNVERIFIED | Founder Medium + official site + AlternativeTo + pre-launch Reddit skepticism thread; no owner discussion anywhere; only 1 verified image (brand YouTube thumbnail) | A genuine 2026 3D-companion software launch that has not yet produced a single findable owner — the launch happened, the community didn't; verify the store listing exists before spending |
| Mana (Yuuzulight) | Live (open-source, Apache-2.0, active Sept 2026) | Local-first open-source Windows AI companion (Live2D/VRM avatar, local Whisper/Qwen/TTS) | Windows | Local voice stack | UNVERIFIED | Free — no price, no subscription, no crowdfunding | GitHub repo (primary surface) + AlternativeTo listing; solo-developer bus-factor risk | The 2026 local-first Windows counterpart to Scowld's iOS story: sovereignty for free, maintained through Sept 2026 — but it's developer-grade software with no commercial support behind it |
| Lepro Ami [WATCHLIST] | Announced CES 2026 ("available starting July 2026"); shipment UNVERIFIED | Desktop 3D AI companion display | Dedicated display hardware (unshipped) | UNVERIFIED | UNVERIFIED | Price never announced | CES press + booth photos; no owner communities exist | Watchlist only: CES announcement plus a missed July 2026 availability date and no price — verify it ships before treating it as a product |
| Razer Project AVA [WATCHLIST — reservation only] | CES 2026 prototype; claimed end-2026 release | Holographic desktop AI companion capsule | Dedicated hardware (unshipped) | UNVERIFIED | UNVERIFIED | $20 refundable reservation (Discord-linked page, Ubergizmo Jan 2026); final price unannounced — reservation, not crowdfunding, not purchase | CES press; no owner community | Watchlist only: a $20 refundable bet on a Razer prototype — the reservation is real, the product isn't |
G4. Additional shutdowns / production-halts
| Item | Status | What it was | Death/halt date | Social/farewell record | Failure lesson / verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuri (Mayfield Robotics / Bosch) | Cancelled pre-shipment | The $699 home robot with an expressive face; production stopped before any customer received one | July 25, 2018 (production stopped; deposits refunded); Mayfield ceased Oct 31, 2018 | Robot Report/Engadget coverage; no owners, so no grief — a cancellation, not a funeral | Lesson: the cleanest death is the one with no customers — refund the deposits, say it plainly; the contrast with Soulmate's one-week notice is the whole point |
| Pepper (SoftBank Robotics) | Production halted, NOT verified dead | The most-deployed social robot ever (enterprise leases, retail greeter) | June 2021 production pause (inventory cited; SoftBank denied killing it); no dated final discontinuation found | Trade press; no funeral — it was shelved quietly | Lesson: even SoftBank-scale distribution couldn't make companion-robotics unit economics work; "still technically a business" can mean no new units in five years — a production pause is a slow death with no announcement |
| AltspaceVR (Microsoft) | DEAD | Consumer social-VR platform (the venue where VR companions like Joken's peers lived) | March 10, 2023 (Microsoft → Mesh pivot, layoffs) | Road to VR/Engadget coverage; Facebook Spaces (Oct 25, 2019) folded in as a related note | Lesson: platform consolidation kills ecosystems — when Microsoft pivoted to workplace VR, the consumer social-VR venues (and the companions that lived in them) went with it |
D. Borderline (excluded from main count — one-line treatment)
- Kindroid — text/memory-first AI companion with a strong loyal community (Facebook chronic-illness community, zero-censorship threads), excluded: no real-time rendered 3D character.
- Kuki (ICONIQ/Pandorabots) — brand chatbot with text-based chat, excluded: no real-time 3D personal companion.
- ANIMA Lab — considered, dropped: decent founder social signal but polluted by the unrelated 2024-era myanima.ai product and no attributable product imagery.
- VisionClaw — real-time 3D conversational character (Vision Pro), dropped: developer prototype, no organic signal.
- Avtaar.ai — dropped: dead (site 404s), zombie directory listings only.
- Digi (Digi AI) — dropped: cannot verify live in Sept 2026 (domain dead, Play 404), no organic community.
- EVA AI — dropped: live app but prerecorded/generated video replies, not real-time 3D.
- Paradot — dropped: 10M+ installs and real community, but avatars are AI-generated 2D-style imagery, not verifiable real-time 3D.
- Alice: Adventurous Character AI — dropped: removed from Google Play, stale 2025 build, no 2026 signal.
- Round-3 China lane rejects: Maoxiang/Cat Box (live, 381K ratings, no verified real-time 3D), Lumi (product identity unverifiable), Xingye (477K ratings, no 3D claim), Zhumengdao (live, no 3D; VIP RMB 16/mo), Lovin (live, no 3D; LoveyDovey identity overlap unresolved), GLOW (historical/pivoted, UNVERIFIED), Xiaoice (already covered — not duplicated).
- Round-3 Android lane rejects: iGirl (fails 3D bar — July 2026 owner explicitly denies a 3D character), Emily ("3D" is character-art style only), Aria (stale Oct 2025, poorly supported, 3D unverified), GRAVITY (3D avatars and AI companion are separate features), MyGirl (picture/video-gated, no real-time-3D evidence), Eve (well-reviewed voice companion, no 3D evidence), SoulOn (delisted, dead).
- Round-4 enterprise/dev drops: Ready Player Me (dead — Netflix acquisition, shut Jan 31, 2026; kills the Wolf3D brand too), D-ID agents / Tavus CVI / Hedra / Hour One (video-not-3D), Pinscreen (2020 prototype only), Didimo (generation PaaS, no conversation), Microsoft Mesh avatars (meeting avatars), Google's "Alter" (absorbed 2022, demo-only in 2026), LivePortrait-style avatars (research toolkits).
- Round-4 VRChat/social-VR drops: Roblox "Caine AI chat" (unshipped), scripted NPCs, RDC 2026 announcements-only; Resonite/NeosVR/Rec Room (no qualifying signal).
- Round-4 community-sweep rejects: Call Annie (2D animation, not 3D), AniAni.AI, Genesia AI (mod-APK/affiliate only), Desktop Mate (no open AI conversation), N0va Desktop (delisted), SoulFun, Little LUMI (2D sprite), m1k3 (pivoted), Rinna (B2B), Sensorium Galaxy (no verifiable live build).