Scowld — open-source iOS AI companion with live VRM avatar (Apoorv Darshan / aopv)

Published · Researched 2026-09-20

Status: Live as of September 21, 2026 — published iOS app (App Store id 6760672848, "Scowld – AI Voice Companion for iOS"), latest release v2.0.1, GitHub repo (github.com/aopv/scowld) updated ~28 days before observation (late August 2026). MIT licensed, solo-built by Apoorv Darshan. Research current as of September 21, 2026.

Overview

Scowld is a native iOS (17.0+, iPhone and iPad) AI companion app whose defining feature is a real-time rendered 3D VRM character on screen — not a chat bubble with a static portrait. The SwiftUI app wraps a bundled Amica/Arbius web frontend running Three.js + three-vrm inside a WKWebView, giving the avatar VRMA idle animations, gestures, expressions, and lip sync while the user talks by voice or text. Three bundled anime VRM characters (Aria, Bella, Ciel) are swappable in Settings along with a custom companion name and system prompt; users can also load their own VRM avatar. Hands-free wake mode listens on-device for "Bella" (or the custom name), and optional camera vision feeds what the phone sees to the AI as context.

The business model changed with Scowld 2.0 (~June 2026): the app went free and fully open source (MIT), removing the old "Scowld Plus" subscriptions, billing tab, StoreKit purchases, voice credits, and credit packs. Everything is bring-your-own-key — the user pastes their own AI, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech provider keys (Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, Ollama, Groq, OpenRouter, xAI, Together AI, Hugging Face, Venice AI, Moonshot AI; STT via native iOS, OpenAI/Groq Whisper, Deepgram, AssemblyAI, Google Cloud STT; TTS via ElevenLabs or OpenAI voices). Keys live in the iOS Keychain; there is no Scowld backend receiving or proxying keys (per SECURITY.md). Chat history is stored locally (CoreData) with selectable saved chats as context.

Social standing

Scowld's social footprint is thin but genuine — maker-authored and developer-community, not affiliate promo:

• GitHub (github.com/aopv/scowld, formerly apoorvdarshan/scowld): ~11–22 stars, active maintenance (repo updated ~28 days before observation; release v2.0.1 notes streamlined onboarding, character settings, and About screen). Issues are the support channel. Curated into alvinreal/awesome-opensource-ai ("Quality signals: License: MIT; Maintenance status: Active"), DasterProkio/awesome-ai-companion ("Verified the claims against Scowld's README, App Store metadata, and MIT license"), and Correia-jpv/fucking-open-source-ios-apps (listed with App Store link, 22 stars / 6 forks in that snapshot). (All observed Sept 21, 2026.)
• Dev.to (creator's own post, ~90 days before observation ≈ June 2026): "Most 'AI companion' apps give you a chat bubble. I wanted a face." and "Scowld is an iOS app where you talk to an animated AI companion and it talks back, in its own voice, with a 3D character on screen." The post documents the Three.js/three-vrm VRM rendering layer, BYOK provider matrix, wake-word listening, and vision context.
• Medium (creator, ~March 2026): "added AVATAR switching to SCOWLD today you can now pick between three CHARACTERS : → Bella → Aria → Ciel" — avatar switching was added in direct response to user requests ("people kept asking for different characters so here we go").
• Directory listings: thejoai.com (launch date listed as March 22, 2026; pricing "No Info"), theresanaiforthat.com — thin, third-party curation rather than community discussion.
• No Facebook groups, Reddit threads, or Threads owner discussion found in this pass. The README references Instagram and X accounts, but engagement was not captured (UNVERIFIED).

Recurring praise: real-time VRM avatar with lip sync, full BYOK provider choice, privacy (keys in Keychain, no vendor backend), open source. Recurring friction: BYOK is mandatory — without your own API keys the app cannot generate replies (the App Store reviewer notes state this explicitly: "Scowld is a bring-your-own-key (BYOK) app. It has NO bundled or free API keys… This is by design"); iOS-only; community is maker-adjacent rather than a broad consumer base.

Specs

Pricing (as reported, dated)

Observed September 21, 2026:

• App: free — Scowld 2.0 "removed subscriptions, the Billing tab, StoreKit purchases, voice credits, and extra credit packs" (GitHub release v2.0 notes, ~June 2026). No paywall in the current build.
• Provider costs: user-paid BYOK — "Users are responsible for provider accounts, API keys, provider billing, rate limits, and acceptable use policies" (README, Monetization section). Exact per-provider spend UNVERIFIED; depends on the user's chosen keys (e.g., Gemini/OpenAI/ElevenLabs rates).
• Legacy: "Scowld Plus" was the pre-2.0 paid tier (hosted Gemini + Deepgram + ElevenLabs with voice credits, per scowld.xyz marketing copy crawled earlier in 2026); discontinued with 2.0.

⚠️ Total cost of ownership is entirely a function of the user's own provider usage — a Gemini free-tier key plus native iOS STT could make the running cost near zero (UNVERIFIED in practice; no user spend reports found).

Support reality

• Actively maintained by a solo developer: repo commits/releases through late August 2026 (v2.0.1), SECURITY.md with a supported-versions table (2.x ✅) and private vulnerability reporting (GitHub security advisories or email). GitHub Issues is the public support channel.
• In-app support surface: About screen links update check, rating, GitHub star, Product Hunt, issue reporting, contact, Instagram, X, privacy, and terms (per README).
• Friction points: BYOK onboarding is the known barrier — the App Store reviewer notes walk through a full 5-step key-setup flow, and the app shows "API key is missing" guidance instead of failing silently. No dedicated consumer helpdesk or live chat observed (UNVERIFIED beyond GitHub Issues).

Community verdict

A genuine niche pick: the only live iOS-native, open-source, real-time-VRM companion in this sweep, and arguably the cleanest privacy story (keys in Keychain, no vendor backend, local chat history). The 3D bar is cleared unambiguously — real VRM rendering with lip sync, not animated 2D or generated video. The trade is audience: the community is the maker's own devlog (dev.to/Medium) plus open-source curation, with no measurable Reddit/Facebook/Threads owner discussion and BYOK key setup as a hard onboarding filter. Best fit for privacy-minded, technical iOS users who already hold LLM/TTS API keys — not a mass-market Replika alternative.

Primary images

• scowld-01.jpg — official app icon from Product Hunt asset CDN: anime character (Bella-style, blue hair, blue eyes) on blue rounded-square background. 1254×1254 JPEG, HEAD 200 verified, content visually confirmed. Primary pick.
• Images 2–3: FAILED SOURCES — two thejoai.com directory screenshots of scowld.xyz (backblazeb2 CDN) downloaded and HEAD-200-verified, but both rendered as blank dark pages (JS-gated site captured only the nav header; content visually confirmed unusable) and were discarded. GitHub README asset screenshots could not be enumerated this run because direct page fetch was unavailable; retry recommended via browser task. (Documented per the failed-source rule rather than substituted.)

Evidence status

• Live status, v2.0/v2.0.1 release contents, BYOK model, provider lists, VRM/three-vrm architecture, MIT license, Keychain/local storage claims — verified from the GitHub repo README, APPSTORE.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, SECURITY.md, and release notes as indexed September 21, 2026.
• App Store listing (id 6760672848) and website (scowld.xyz) confirmed live via third-party verification (awesome-ai-companion PR checked claims against App Store metadata ~44 days before observation); direct App Store page fetch failed in this pass.
• Quotes are verbatim from the creator's dev.to/Medium posts and the GitHub release notes; dates approximate (converted from "days ago" metadata).
• UNVERIFIED in this pass: App Store rating/review count and exact current listing price; depth of "she remembers" memory beyond saved-chat context; full supported language list; wake-mode reliability in practice; Instagram/X community engagement; any Reddit/Facebook/Threads owner discussion (none found; may genuinely not exist).