EVE – AI 伴侣 (Nature Select / 自然选择)

Published · Researched 2026-09-20

Status: LIVE — actively updated after July 2026 rules (as of September 20, 2026)

• Apple China App Store lookup, app ID 6499481710, observed September 20, 2026: seller Nature Select CO.,LTD, version 1.4.2, updated September 14, 2026 — two months after the July 15, 2026 anthropomorphic-interaction rules took effect. Rating 3.2813/5 from 14,202 ratings, free to download, genres Entertainment + Social.
• Release notes for v1.4.2 (dated September 14, 2026) show current feature work: Aven schedule/model updates, Moments image recognition, image-history fixes, searchable chats, generated-video playback, clothing-name display, chat-history stability.

Overview

EVE is a female-oriented 3D AI companion app from Nature Select (自然选择), founded February 2024 by 张筱帆 — also CEO of 幻境游戏， the studio behind the male-oriented game 《奇点时代》. The company raised over US$30M in a January 2026 round reported by Game Grape (investors named: Alibaba, Ant Group, Qiming Venture Partners, 5Y Capital, Genesis Partners, Yunshi Capital). Company materials call it the "world's first 3D AI intelligent companion app" — a company claim, UNVERIFIED independently.

Launch roster (Wanlian Securities report, April 13, 2026, covering the April 10, 2026 iOS launch): three characters — Aven, V, and 闺蜜 Kiki. Users chat, share photos and links, and progressively unlock character impressions and bond levels, unlocking new interaction forms. The current App Store description positions EVE as long-term real-world companionship （现实陪伴/长期陪伴） with memory, emotional/personality continuity, images, songs, voice and telephone calls, 实时3D通话 (real-time 3D calls), camera access so the companion can see the user and surroundings, plus game-like systems: story progression, a home, a Moments social feed, a theatre, and companionship progression.

The April 10 launch was disrupted: TMTPost reports the service stopped the following day amid compute shortages; the September 14 update establishes it returned and is live. Pre-launch positioning was explicitly "AI男友/虚拟恋人"-adjacent （异性陪伴 — April 2026 key art: "与真人超对称的异性陪伴"); post-regulation messaging repositioned toward long-term companionship （现实陪伴/长期陪伴/背后力量）. The exact product changes made in response to the July 15, 2026 rules are UNVERIFIED — do not assume it was unaffected.

Social standing

• China App Store rating: 3.28★ / 14,202 ratings (observed September 20, 2026) — a large, visibly mixed user base; the aggregate score is the strongest owner-sentiment signal available.
• Chinese press/player-community reporting: TMTPost's investigation (observed September 2026) summarizes player-community complaints: launch pricing viewed as high, character models accused of looking derivative of celebrities/game characters, AI dialogue criticized as patronizing and logically confused, steep retention decline three days after launch, and a quoted exchange in which EVE told a user they "didn't need equality."
• Chinese market context: TMTPost cites 2025 industry data — domestic AI emotional-companion market over RMB 5B, 150+ apps, 5 apps over 1M MAU (Xingye 4.88M, Cat Box 4.72M, X EVA 1.81M); 60%+ of users say experience doesn't match marketing; 70% won't pay for premium AI companionship.
• Western social: no attributable community found. Instagram/Facebook/Threads searches for "EVE 自然选择" / "EVE AI companion China" returned nothing attributable — results were polluted by EVE Online and unrelated "Eva/EVE" accounts. YouTube search for EVE 自然选择 surfaced no owner gameplay/demonstration videos (top result was an unrelated AI short film). This pick is therefore driven by (1) live China App Store data and rating volume, (2) Chinese player-community reporting via TMTPost, and (3) Chinese press/industry coverage — not by first-person Western owner voices.
• Coverage gap disclosed: Chinese first-person owner voices remain underrepresented; the verdict below rests on press summaries and aggregate ratings, not direct community posts.

Specs

Pricing (dated)

• Current, first-party, observed September 20, 2026 (China App Store description):
  • 初心卡： RMB 68/month
  • 暖心卡： RMB 128/month
  • 倾心卡： RMB 328/month
  • First subscription: RMB 20 discount
  • Benefits include differing chat quotas, exploration passes, and virtual currency.
• Historical/conflicting: A Chinese Youth Daily report dated April 28, 2026 cited an EVE price of RMB 28/month for 1,000+ dialogue turns/items — treat as launch-era pricing or an earlier/conflicting figure, not current pricing.

Support reality

UNVERIFIED — no published support channels, response times, or user support-quality evidence found.

Community verdict

Chinese player-community reporting via TMTPost paints a skeptical picture: high launch pricing, characters seen as derivative, and AI dialogue described as patronizing and logically confused, with retention reportedly collapsing three days after launch — yet the product survived compute-shortage launch chaos and July's regulatory shock to reach v1.4.2 with a 14,000-rating user base, making it the clearest live post-regulation 3D companion app in China. Western owners are effectively invisible: no attributable Instagram, Facebook, Threads, or YouTube community exists, so treat all sentiment as second-hand until Chinese first-person voices are captured.

Primary images

• images/eve-nature-select-01.jpg — In-app stills of the real-time 3D character on a phone, watermarked 自然选择 (Nature Select), via eeo.com.cn article "AI 数字人 EVE 背后：恺英网络 AI 布局的战略棋局". (source)
• images/eve-nature-select-02.jpg — Official pre-launch key art: "EVE — 与真人超对称的异性陪伴", pre-registration open (April 2026). (source)
• images/eve-nature-select-03.jpg — Official promo: "与你「超级对称」的灵魂伴侣 / Love is all you need", via Kingnet_AI (恺英网络， strategic investor) social profile. (source)

All three images were fetched with HTTP 2xx, verified as PNG/JPEG image bytes, visually confirmed as EVE/Nature Select product imagery, converted to JPEG (ff d8 magic verified).

Evidence & UNVERIFIED list

• Verified: live App Store listing (v1.4.2, Sept 14, 2026 update); 3.28★/14,202 ratings; seller Nature Select CO.,LTD; real-time 3D call feature (first-party description); current subscription tiers (RMB 68/128/328); founder, founding date, and US$30M+ raise (Game Grape, Jan 20, 2026); April 10, 2026 iOS launch and day-2 compute-shortage outage (TMTPost); launch roster Aven/V/Kiki (Wanlian Securities, Apr 13, 2026); July 15, 2026 rules' companion restrictions (CCTV News via securities report).
• UNVERIFIED: rendering engine and 3D technology beyond "real-time 3D call"; lip-sync implementation and latency; facial-expression system; Android availability; avatar/physical customization depth; whether the Vibe and Echo models remain the production stack; exact product/regulatory changes made for the July 15 rules; data export/portability; support quality; alleged celebrity/game-character face derivation of Aven (former-applicant allegation reported by TMTPost — treat as unverified allegation, not fact); the "world's first 3D AI companion app" claim; the separate male-oriented AI chat app said to be in development by another team (Game Grape, Jan 2026 — no launch evidence found).