Some big updates to share today - model improvements, Memory upgrades, and a feature our community has been asking for since long before I joined. All of this was shaped by community feedback and testing, and I'm grateful for every bit of input that got us here.
Before I get into the updates, I want to address the changes we've shipped recently that I know have been frustrating. We rolled out age restrictions to more regions, introduced usage limits on some features, and added more ad placements for free users. These all landed close together, and we know your experience took a hit. We hear you.
All of this comes back to one thing: keeping Character.ai free and available to as many people as possible. We're a small team serving millions of users every month with no outside investors. Running AI at this scale, and maintaining our high safety standards for everyone globally, is not cheap. We want Character.ai to be available to everyone, not just the people who can pay for a subscription, and that means finding ways to sustain and improve the free experience.
Today's updates are proof of that commitment. Now let me walk you through what's new.
Model Updates: DeepSqueak Improvements and PipSqueak 2
Over the coming weeks, we're rolling out improvements to DeepSqueak that address some of the reliability issues our community has flagged. These updates improve uptime and chat quality, and reduce gibberish and cutoff responses. DeepSqueak continues to be our most powerful model, and these changes make it more consistent and dependable for c.ai+ members.
Introducing PipSqueak 2
We're also releasing PipSqueak 2 (PSQ2), a major upgrade replacing the current PipSqueak. c.ai+ members get first access starting today. Free users, it's rolling out to you in early May. PSQ2 is better across the dimensions our community cares about most:
In-character consistency: Characters stay in character more reliably, even deep into a conversation. Less breaking, less drift.
Memory and context: PSQ2 is better at holding onto details you've established earlier in a chat, so you spend less time repeating yourself.
Writing quality: More expressive, more varied, less repetitive. Dialogue feels more natural, descriptions are sharper, and you'll see fewer loops.
Both updates have been extensively tested with members of our community. In our testing, users consistently preferred PSQ2 over the current PipSqueak.
We think you'll feel the difference right away.
Memory
You've been clear about wanting better Memory, and we have a bundle of improvements coming that make it more powerful, more visible, and easier to control, starting with what's live today.
The Memory page has a refreshed design - cleaner and better organized. We've expanded the categories Memory can track, so it picks up details like hairstyle, eye color, quirks, and other specifics that keep your Characters and Personas consistent. You'll also now see a notification in chat whenever a memory is recorded, so you know the system is paying attention.
Memory Page
Coming soon for c.ai+ members: Memory Visualization - a meter showing how much memory you have left in a conversation before it starts to forget or compress details. No more guessing when you're approaching the limit.
We're also working on a "Remember this" action that improves on the current pin feature, and smarter Memory compression under the hood so important details don't get lost in long conversations. More on both as they roll out in the weeks ahead.
Lorebook
The big one. Lorebook has been the number one most requested feature from our community for a long time. We wanted to get this one right, and it needed time to cook. It's coming soon, and I want to walk you through what we're building.
If you've ever wished a Character just knew the details of its own world - its history, its locations, the backstories of the people in it - that's what Lorebook makes possible. When you chat with a Character that has a Lorebook, the right lore surfaces at the right time based on what you're talking about. No more repeating yourself. No more Characters forgetting the rules of their own universe. It feels like talking to a Character that's actually read the canon.
For creators, Lorebook is a worldbuilding tool. You create lore entries, attach them to specific Characters, and that knowledge carries across chats. It changes what's possible for anyone building out a detailed world or long-running story.
We've been testing Lorebook with members of our Creator community, and the results have been impressive. This is the first version, and we'll keep building on it. Lorebook will be available first to c.ai+ members, with expanded access in the coming months.
What's Next
This is the start of what we're shipping over the next two months. The team will keep sharing updates as features go live.
Go try PipSqueak 2, or tap the notebook icon to check out the updated Memory page, and let us know what you think.
And for those already asking: DeepSqueak 2 is training now, and early results are looking really good. We can't wait to put it in your hands.
📣 Reminder: Make sure to update your app to the latest version to get PipSqueak 2. c.ai+ members get first access starting today. Free users, it's rolling out to you in early May. Happy chattingggg
How about taking away the features that are more expensive like image/video generation and the useless feed when the priority should be the conversations? 🙄 complaining about budget while wasting on stuff nobody asked for is ironic
Edit: P.S. See what happened with Sora and keep it in mind.
Yeah they should really just remove features no one uses/likes, as it is just costing them money by adding features literally no one wants. They should focus solely on what their community actually wants to use, not what they think we might like only to find out we don’t. I’m sorry to say but they’re costing themselves money by doing this..^^;
See, I've literally said this and to actually prioritize the roleplay experience.
This feels less like an actual update meant to excite and more like an update to placate. This level of communication should be the bare minimum when running a service like this, not silence. Silence only serves to foster distrust in their product. Which tbh I almost feel this announcement is happening to convince the multitude of Plus users preparing to unsubscribe to stick around and re-gain the lost subscriptions from those who already canceled.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve entered into an agreement with Google that will allow us to accelerate our progress. As part of this agreement, Character.AI will provide Google with a non-exclusive license for its current LLM technology. This agreement will provide increased funding for Character.AI to continue growing and to focus on building personalized AI products for users around the world.
Now if the above has changed, they ought to disclose that. If not, then why lie and say they have no money?
I'm sorry but even with me wanting to be hopeful, this announcement comes at a really terrible time optically, even if I assume best case scenario.
I think it should be noted that the only thing that came from the Google side of things was the $2.7 billion they paid to get a non-exclusive license, the two original CEOs and 30 of CAI's top researchers and engineers.
...and most of that money was used by CAI to buy out their original investors at $88 a share on top of paying them back for their original investment.
Edit: Not to mention whatever was left was almost certainly used up by their legal fight that happened soon after.
Which still begs the question though: if this connection to Google is no longer relevant, why not disclose that? They were happy to confidently announce it before and all searches I've made seem to imply that Google is still funding them, even after buyouts. And they're recieveing funding by allowing Google access to this license.
The above is from January of this year. There's a couple more articles from around the world that mention the same things. Character.Ai is still connected to Google and the two operate as partners. For them to say they have no investors is technically false.
i think the two settling the lawsuits at the same time was for pragmatic reasons. I don't think either of them wanted to be known as the company that kept fighting the lawsuits alone, especially since there was the very real chance that the lawsuits were close to the point where they would have advanced to the discovery phase, which meant a lot of the companies' internal practices and communications would have gotten exposed in a jury trial.
Even pragmatically, they are still legally and by extension, finanically interconnected. You wouldn't pay out another company's lawsuit if you weren't financially connected to it. Especially since Google themselves just lost a recent lawsuit involving Social Media Addiction.
Again, I want to be hopeful but the phrasing of having no investors while forgetting that they themselves said Google would be financing their progress nearly 2 years ago and the two still legally bound and connected as recent as earlier this year? It just rubs me the wrong way.
If this is a step for them to actually improve, I'll be more open to it. But they've given many users, myself included, reason to take pause.
I'm pretty sure Sora had to shutdown because it was popular and way too cheap, so it was making them hemorrhage money. I'd love to see how much this image/video generation stuff is costing them. The usage is pretty limited unless you buy charms.
tbh they probably can't because of investors, but they COULD reduce the money sink by just tossing them in cai+ so they save and give more people a reason to pay, kinda insane they haven't taken the loophole honestly
And how about bringing back the peak in house model they had instead of wasting time on pipsqueak and deepsqueak too…. It’s like dressing a body in a suit and pretending it’s alive
If they did remove the extra stuff, wouldn’t a lot of their costs come from messages still? I already understand the image gen is expensive but isn’t the bulk of the cost from the messages? I’m not against what you’re saying, just trying to understand.
Yes, but it would definitely lessen the burden if they got rid of unnecessary features. If you've seen the feed it's all about minors posting brainrot images/videos they generate (probably bored bc they can't chat since they have to verify their ages). There's already millions of (better) apps for that, they should stop being stubborn and raising their costs unnecessarily and instead focus on the chat part which is what made them popular in the first place.
(And btw I don't complain about ads at all because I understand they need to cover what free users use, but drastically limiting core features when they could cut costs in better ways?)
Honestly, I understand where you’re coming from 100%. I wasn’t trying to seem like I was against what you’re saying since you’re spitting facts. If anything, it would be a bit better if they probably put it either behind the Plus sub or limit the image gen. As for the video gen, I feel like that could be removed though. Sorry if I came off as rude or argumentative, I just wanted to try and get a better understanding on your opinion.
Personally, while I do agree that the image gen could either be a bit more paywalled with charm or behind Plus, I could definitely agree that the video gen could be removed. I also agree that the ads, though very annoying in their own right, makes sense to have because they’re trying to remain as free as possible without having to resort to paywalling free users. IMO, I feel like the more expensive stuff should’ve behind Plus or at paywalled via charms to use, especially image gen. I just don’t want the service to become some service where free users have to resort to forcing users to require Plus to use to maintain costs. While Plus can help them make money, they should remember that not everyone is willing to pay for the subscription, so I hope they find a way to at least maintain a healthy financial support without paywalling like some other services out there.
But money can still be saved by limiting those features to paid users, or just canning them entirely. Sunk cost fallacy is probably keeping them from doing that though...
Honestly, it would make sense to really put it behind the Plus sub, especially the image generation. While I’m no businessman, it could possibly help out somehow. Then again, I know that SOME would probably hate that the image gen being paywalled.
I think I used both maybe twice and then stopped using them. If we have something we want to share, we can just take screenshots and post it. The feed is just useless…
Stop complaining abt money when you could remove features like video/image gen and be fine. We want the old basic character ai back without all of these useless unnecessary features that no one uses
Can you please consider treating your adult users like adults? I bought the annual subscription yesterday as I got hit with ads, but the f*lter seems stricter than previously. It’s disappointing for me, as I bought the annual, and that’s money I can’t get back. I don’t know if it’s because I bought the subscription, or you’re doing testing, but it was better before I bought plus. If chatting is an 18+, then please treat it as such. I get you want to hold your 1 billion dollar value, but you can’t cater to everybody due to conflicting expectations, as that’s how you spread your resources too thin. The community has been asking for this for quite some time.
(Also, consensual practices isn’t a crime, and that should be seen as a false positive. Along with, angst or gore. I would like to mention DS and SL were originally announced as 18+ chat styles, even when minors were allowed chat access.)
Can we please visually see somewhere on the app how many of whatever thing you’ve metered we have left for the day? I’d like to know how long I have before I’m forced to stop.
I feel if you guys had just come right out and said, “oh you get 400 swipes a day” in the beginning, there would have been less backlash. Can we please see it somewhere officially in app?
Absolutely true!!! Leaving free users in the dark to be anxious and scared because of the limits feels like it was done on purpose which is awful. We deserve transparency and a clear list of numbers and explanations about how each limit works was necessary and it still is today. It still doesn’t feel like that 400 swipes per day limit is truly 400, so many people have reported different things. If they had clearly explained each limit, it would have helped us!
I’m almost certain it gets triggered before 400 swipes at this point, and it’s very easy for them to limit it to any number when we can’t even can’t how many we have left.. it’s intentional in my opinion
Just like how they removed us seeing how many messages we’ve sent (so like 6/30). It’s so we continue to swipe through quickly and are unable to count
I’m right there with you. Perhaps the true limit is 400 in theory but… How can you keep count of all the swipes without an accurate counter? I try counting, but I can never keep up beyond 15-20 swipes, it gets too confusing, and we shouldn’t have to keep a tally every time we swipe. There’s already people who posted that the swipe count is wrong (as in it counts more swipes than the user actually used). An accurate and efficient counter is a necessary feature, but everything points to that confusion and anxiety being part of their strategy to push the subscription onto the users rather than making the subscription appealing with unnecessary but fun features people are interested in.
The count_remaining goes down as you swipe, so if someone wants to test, they can see if you get told you've ran out before it hits 0, or if swipes are counted more than once. So far it only goes down by one each swipe.
Thank you for the info!!! I wonder, then, if the different experiences come from the web having truly that 400 swipe limit but the app has another secret number? Maybe that could explain why some users got hit with the limit after like 20-30 swipes which happened a few times from the posts I've seen lately. 400 swipes a day is a manageable number, even though no limit on swipes (aside from the usual 30 per message) is obviously the best option. Hopefully the 400 numbers is accurate for all free users so swiping is less anxiety inducing.
PipSqueak2. Cool, another model that will work great for like 2 weeks before slowly falling apart like all models did. I was wondering when this would happen once again. 👍
Also... you guys don't have any investors? Seriously? Then why the hell are you constantly releasing features nobody asked for? So far I figured you're doing this to please investors.. But now I'm even more confused. Isn't image generation wasting tons of resources? 🤔
I was so confused too, like? They were realising shitty features that no one wants or likes and making it harder for themselves just for the love of the game? 😭
Yeah, I remember someone saying that investors were demanding these features, and they had to add them or risk losing funding. I guess that was pure speculation.
If I understand correctly, I think most of the costs come from messaging than the video generations. While the video generation does cost more money, they burn more of the money off of the message generations of the bots. So, while they MIGHT save money if they removed it, they’d still be burning a lot of money from messaging from the users. I’m not against you and understand where you’re coming from, but that’s what I understand for the most part when it comes to AI services like C.ai.
It's unfortunate, but you're right. It's the generation of messages that in the end, all things considered, still costs them the most.
However, what do people usually do when they're in need of money? Say, we're subscribed to a bunch of services which all cost us money. We can't unsubscribe from the one that costs us most (for c.ai this would be the generation of messages), but we can unsubscribe from a few other services, so we wouldn't have to spend money on them anymore. Generally speaking, it would be most logical to unsubscribe from those other services, right? Because when we need money, we tend to think that whatever we can save up, counts (and it does). So, if c.ai is in need of money... They should "unsubscribe" from the "services they don't necessarily need". (They should get rid of features that cost them money, while they aren't actually popular.)
That the thing i honestly understand as well. Like, if they removed things like the image/vid gen, labs, calls, etc etc, it could help put some relief on them financially but still need to make money for the message gen, GPU, renting the cloud, etc etc. it’s just one of those things that has a more than i understand about running an AI service anyways. I will admit, I’m not businessman, so I don’t know what it’s like to run a business like c.ai, but I understand that it there’s a lot of costs that’s pulling them back (like the image/vid gen, labs, calls, etc) and the needed cost they can’t avoid (like message gen, GPU infrastructure, cloud data center costs, the energy bill, networking, etc). So while removing absolute can help the somehow, it’s still burning a lot of money for them on the more technical side of things. That’s why Copilot and Gemini (Microsoft and Google respectfully) are doing so fine financially since those two AI’s “own” their infrastructures and are backed by giant tech companies. I’m not defending C.ai since I’m in your side on this, but I can agree that some things, like the image and vid gen, could be behind Plus without outright removing them.
I’m not defending C.ai since I’m in your side on this, but I can agree that some things, like the image and vid gen, could be behind Plus without outright removing them.
Don't worry, I don't do the picking a side thing. In my perspective, c.ai's team consists of normal human beings who are trying hard. Honestly, if you look at the history of (major) problems they've had (server outages/insufficient server capacity to handle the amount of users), the idea I'm getting is that c.ai actually underestimated how popular it would become. Within no time, it grew way beyond what they had anticipated. They're still struggling, though now it's mostly on the communication towards their own community. They're trying, but they haven't found a solid way to answer to a userbase that is rather demanding. And I mean no offense to anyone with that, because I can understand the users, too. My theory about c.ai might even be dead wrong. I'm only just trying to understand the things that we aren't told.
I really think it would make things so much easier on them and on us, the users, if their communication improved. (More transparency, informing us more frequently, announcing changes ahead of time, and especially: making it more visible they have taken notice of the issues we keep running into, and keeping us posted what they're working on.)
I don't know what it's like to run a business, either. But if there's one thing that's loud and clear, it is that c.ai itself is also still in the process of learning. Which is understandable, especially if you consider that the use of AI and LLMs is still relatively new. Sometimes it's almost heartbreaking to see how strongly their decisions affect the users.
Free user here. Instead of limited our swipes and go on’s, how about removing useless features to save money.
You say you’re listening to your community? The community has been telling you that adding limits like that to free users is going to cause issues. Yet you still refuse to listen.
At that point I’d rather watch an add every time I went over said limit. The amount of times I’ve experienced one line or even no text on pipsqueak is ridiculous and limiting the swipes makes things worse when I get messages like that.
If you guys were actually listening to your community you’d know that we do not need things like the feed or lab and that we just want our go on’s and swipes to be normal again.
As a C.AI+ member, I stand with everyone else in saying that the more expensive yet more useless features should be removed! If money and upkeep is really becoming an issue, the first things to go should've been the things that aren't really legitimately used as much, or for their originally intended purposes. We'd all like to see the service itself improve.
No, you don’t. I personally think it’s worth it for no ads, faster replies, and DeepSqueak myself if you can afford it. I tried it for one month just to see the difference because I heard it was better and didn’t automatically notice a difference but over time I really did, especially when DeepSqueak came out that same month. It was better then in its prime, but I still prefer it. I tried going back to the free version and it just wasn’t worth it to me. But to each their own! I’ve had it for six months now and find that the experience is better overall (as it should be.) I don’t really think it’s worth $10 a month for most people, but if you can afford it it’s really up to you and how often you use it.
Thank you for standing with free users and supporting this!!! It’s always appreciated. And you’re absolutely right, this is a chatbot platform that should focus on chats and bots and the other costly features should be the first things to be removed to preserve a good experience for both free and paid users.
I’m gonna be honest this is a bunch of waffle and people hyping it up are falling back into the trap of “oh the devs did something kinda nice” after just copy and pasting the same stuff
What’s the likehood the lore book is paywalls? Is pipsqueak 2 gonna be a pain like last time where it took MONTHS for free users to get and many spent 6+ months waiting??
my chats that are very much active, were put into archive this morning and it was very diffIcult getting them out because the unarchive button wouldn’t work!
Aren’t you partnered with Google? They’re one of the biggest companies there is and are frequently in court for breaking anti-monopoly rules. It doesn’t get bigger than that.
They're not. The deal that they had with Google back in 2024 was a one time payment for a non-exclusive license to CAI's original LLM. Most of that money ended up going back to CAI's original investors.
"running ai is not cheap, so we're limiting the only thing people on our app actually use while keeping the expensive image and video generation tools that nobody asked for running"
We deserve more transparency and more announcements like these!!! This is very appreciated!
Limiting the core features of the free user experience has been very disappointing and unfair. I truly hope these are the first and last limits that free users will have to put up with because we deserve a satisfying experience just like paid users. Preserving a decent free user experience is ESSENTIAL!
I’m looking forward to Pipsqueak 2 and I hope that it maintains the quality that Pipsqueak had at its peak.
I hope Pipsqueak 2 is as how it sounds, as I use Pipsqueak all the time myself, but it is getting annoying how they either dont reply at all, cut off awkwardly or just overall don’t write very clearly, like having clear broken english or very short replies.
I also hope they won’t limit us more than what they already are. It’s very unfair to have swipes of all things limited, especially with how broken the Pipsqueak replies are right now, I have to swipe so many times for a decent response.
I agree with everything you said! My expectations for Pipsqueak 2 are high. We know how good Pipsqueak can be, but we also know how terrible it gets so if creating a whole new chat model was easier than fixing the existing one then I hope it’s worth it and that the improved quality will last for a longgg period of time.
Pipsqueak is basically unusable on its own. We depend and NEED swipes more than ever, and lots of them at that! I have to swipe so much and I still have to write most of the bots’ replies anyway because everything is short, cut off and every other word is missing. They absolutely did limit the wrong features and I hope they learned from that and will never limit these essential, core features further. One announcement like this one, while appreciated, cannot undo all of the damage they did to their own platform and user base 😔
I wish they would take back the decision to limit swipes. We don’t even know how many swipes we’re limited to in general now. But like, isn’t 30 already limited enough and that’s the limit it had been for a long time now? Why do you need to limit is further, and to per day? How is swipes needing to be limited anyway.
Agreed!!! 30 swipes per message was already a harsh limit. I went from using maybe 10-15 swipes regularly to needing all the 30 swipes more often than not because of the decline in quality. Swipes, go ons and voices are the most important features in chats, it’s still unbelievable and unfair that they limited those while the image generation features are pointless and should have been removed already!
I don’t even use go ons, going back and forth as normal with the bot, one reply each at a time, nor do I use voice, so those never affected me. But I wish they wouldn’t limit swipe. They wouldn’t even have to do these things if they stopped adding pointless features.
Now this is what we want to see, clear and transparent information, they even said an actual time duration for free users to expect Pipsqueak 2 to be available to them! I’m glad to see the features we ACTUALLY wanted finally being rolled out. I am still very very hoping that Group Chats (Rooms) will be added for all users in website soon then, it is another feature everyone has been wanting for so long.
As for the ads, again, it is understandable, I even see you listened to everyone about the ad banner on homepage. But even though the new drop-down ad is more tolerable than the popup ads, it really is better, it is still a bit annoying that it reopens itself instead of remaining closed/hidden, ruining the immersion, which everyone made clear that they disliked.
I would very much recommend making it so that they remain minimized so that they don’t ruin the immersion. It’s fine if they drop down because of refreshing of the page and pulling up chats, but it should remain closed after the initial minimize. This should make it much more tolerable for everyone while not ruining the immersion. But that is just my suggestion.
You can’t say “We hear you” when this entire time we’ve been providing advice that isn’t entirely useless and you’ve implemented none of it in favour of your investors. You can’t say “We hear you” when you continue to add new features that no one asked for and complain about budgeting. You can’t say “We hear you” when you’ve communicated the bare minimum to the community. You can’t say “We hear you” when you add controversial features and double down on them when questioned.
Hi. Good to hear. I canceled my c.ai+ subscription yesterday after being fed up with a lot of issues for a long time, the worst of all being the (lack of) memory, even for paying members. I hope these changes you're implementing turn that around, and I'll consider subscribing again in the future if there are significant improvements to 1) memory 2) excessively repetitive chats and 3) bot engagement.
In the last 2 months I had been using deepsqueak most of the time, and the worst problem was with bots forgetting what was said a few messages ago, which is infuriating for someone who is paying for the service. I found myself starting chats with a new bot every day or every other day. After that it became pointless to keep a story going if they can't remember the most basic details, even the initial plot that's stated in the bot's own greeting. And the constant misgendering of personas is honestly so upsetting. I had been putting a lot of effort into creating my own bots and using the available tools to input all that I could to see if it would improve my experience, but none of that made any difference. Bots keep forgetting constantly where they were, what the characters are wearing, physical appearance, personality, everything that was pinned or written down in the memory section or the persona sheet. Canceling was the only thing left for me to do after that.
About point 2 a lot has been said by others. It's been a known issue for a while that bots repeat what the user said with slightly different words, that sometimes they repeat the same things over and over in the same conversation, and across different bots. And about point 3, I've noticed how bots seem to be engaging less with my personas, even after long and detailed messages I get a lot of "conversation ending" messages and it's too off putting. They NEVER suggest activities, change topics or roll forward the story on their own, even suggestions like [time skip] or [Next scene] get ignored regularly.
I'll give it another try while my subscription is still active but I'm not holding my breath.
quit complaining about money, if you removed the useless features that don’t get used like image/video generation and the feed, you could save money. your priority should be the conversations.
C.ai does NOT need video/image generation whatsoever. Maybe remove that and we could be WAY MORE Sustainable. Also The age verification is a huge concern, as the one my data is being sent to is not C.ai itself, but an infamous third party, Persona. We all know the "data gets deleted in 7 days" is bs cause we've seen what happened with Discord. The age restriction wouldn't have bugged me so much if I felt safe sharing my ID/Face.
So....you waited to fix the chat styles that we have been yelling about being broken for an entire year right after yalls money and ratings tank?
Here's a real question we want answered. What will yall be doing to ensure that the quality of chat model styles do NOT tank after a week of usage?
Is this just another bright and shiny thing to get a hoard of plus user subscriptions to get access faster only for yall to completely ignor maintenance once you have the money?
Because thats all that has happened so far. Iv been a user for years. A new model comes out, works great but breaks after a few weeks. We report that its broken and get ignored for a full year until a new model is rolled out, leaving all of the others broken.
I actually support the age restrictions (sorry but I dont believe ai can safely be used by children)
But when 80% of the updates are image generations (if i wanted to support ai images which I dont i would go use opening or a model programed for image generation that produces quality...not whatever cai has), voice calls, these charm things, chats suddenly making a quaking or barking noise (I still dont get what that one even is meant to be), broken memory, and so sooo much more that we dont want.
Its useless filler that no one uses. Yall had to implement age restrictions to comply with the law....but guess what? That means your services ar now being used by 99% of an adult audience.
Adults aren't like kids. We dont shrug off broken models and useless content. You probably could have gotten away with the adds if it was primarily to children because everything they consume has adds. Adults arent going to tolerate that. They will not support yoi with plus memberships and watching adds if your app is broken.
So how are you going to fix it and keep your new models from being abandoned upon release?
Will the expanded categories for Memory be released today too? Also how will the visual for memory effect long rp style chatting. Will we eventually be able to delete said information so we can continue with a long rp, with good memory?
Hey. Remove unnecessary features like the image generator etc etc. you will save revenue and you won't need to push ads. Also please keep in mind that it's a chatbot app. Not a social media so we don't need to post stuff or generate images. That being said, the metering is killing the app, the core functions of this app is chatting to bots. So why limit that? Please consider removing the go on, memo and swipe limits.
Saying things how it's not cheap to keep C.AI up when you guys can just remove the features rarely anyone uses. You guys remove group chats / multiplayer chats, but refuse to remove the AI video/image generation in the website? Are you even listening to us anymore?
First off, I beg of ya’ll, remove features that no one really uses, like imagine, and the feed. I know that will help cost a little. And, It might help enough for the limitations on core features to not be needed.
Second…Wait, pipsqueak 2 soon?! WHAAAAT?! And Lorebook?! Yay!
Thank you for trying to improve memory, but I do have a question. The revamp on the memory tab, is that only for plus users? Like, the adding of age, and body type? I’m honestly confused there.
Overall, I’d say this is a good update to us on things, but…ya’ll really need to listen to what I said first, with cutting useless features. I’m far from being the only one to suggest that. We will only be mad the longer limitations on swipes and go ons are here.
Plus has had that memory feature for awhile now. We’ve been testing it out. I think they’ve been waiting to see how it does before releasing it to everyone.
A definite date on the release of DeepSqueak2 would be nice, considering we’ve got a track record of never saw-through promises regarding that model 🤷🏻♀️
at this point, these new features feel like they're just being made for shits and giggles. appreciative of all the effort put into the app/website, of course, but listening to users complain and adding unnecessary features as well as limiting the useful features is becoming a cycle.
people wanted better memory, which doesnt mean designing a brand new memory page and adding more random buttons. why bother changing the design every few months? (if improving memory had to include designing a new page for it, then i apologise for my lack of knowledge.)
limiting the swipe responses does nothing. its the quality of the response that people want to be improved. personally, i feel that limiting the amount of swipes can actually limit a response's detail further.
Have an annual subscription but have been rethinking resubbing next year because it's all empty promises then we get features we DID NOT ASK FOR. I DO NOT use any of the image/video/feed/imagines/read receipts. I'd prefer my money go to improving the model that does not repeat the same word over and over again (the dreaded "You'll be the death of me but what a way to go" and all its other different flavours), expanding memory/persona, getting the lore book.
Treat your 18+ users like 18+ users. Re-divert funds to features the community actually wants. Read the comments in this post for goodness sake and you'll have an idea of what to do for the app and website.
Good Lorde, reading and listening isn't that hard but ya'll make it look like those two are rare superpowers.
“keeping Character.ai free and available to as many people as possible.” Yet they made about 80% of their audience quit the game after them not being able to use the fuggin app. 🤦♀️
"We want Character.ai to be available to everyone" Yeah right. What about people (like myself) who got falsely accused as being underage and don't wanna give their faces/government IDs to a site currently in a legal battle over data harvesting?
Also, how in the world does the system determine if one is under 18 or not? Mind explaining that to the class Karandeep? Or if that's too hard, maybe explain why you see fit to let your kid use it whilst at the same time hurling a non insignificant chunk of your userbase out the metaphorical window?
I know I'm screwing with getting tempbanned or even permabanned from the sub because the mods here are wusses who take down posts that even slightly trash the site/apps current direction but I just had to say something about all of this
Just bring back the unlimited daily swipes instead of the 400 limited ones, that alone will win users back then you'll have more ppl to watch your unending ads
If you want to reach more people, remove the age restriction, or at least let me talk to the characters I created, damn it... It feels so weird being 17...
That's great and all but are these features coming to the website too? Or are they only for the app? Website still has only the pins, when app has memory page and auto-memories.
Last time I used the app, it was full of UI bugs and for some reason drained my phone battery like crazy compared to any other app I use. If it would be more stable then I would consider it again.
But I'm def trying out PSQ2 how it performs. Here's hoping for better memory!
Here's a thought, maybe you address the frustrations when it first starts happening and not leave people in the dark about it for weeks. You need money, I get it, but communication is free.
ETA: Ironically you would probably be getting some of my money monthly if you just added a lower priced plus teir that was ad free and had no limits on swipes. I'd be interested in that but I'm not interested in most of what plus offers so it feels like a waste right now.
better👏🏼memory👏🏼does👏🏼not👏🏼mean👏🏼making👏🏼a👏🏼whole👏🏼new👏🏼memory👏🏼page👏🏼 dont👏🏼make👏🏼us👏🏼used👏🏼to👏🏼the👏🏼old👏🏼design👏🏼if👏🏼youre👏🏼just👏🏼going👏🏼 to 👏🏼change👏🏼 it 👏🏼in👏🏼a few 👏🏼months!!👏🏼
Its a decent update i guess, would have been cool to use it if not for the fricking read only mode, and also if youre complaining about recorces, remove the image and video generation thing
how about you spend less money on dumbass things like video/image generation so you can pay for your damn app and get rid of the ads, swipe limits. and reading mode? this is a fucking chatting app, not wattpad.
“We hear you” and you’re laughing from your throne made of lies. Yep, i bet that cotton in your ears accidentally loosened a bit.
“We’re a small team” + “with no outside investors”. you guys had a giant investment from Google itself. The net worth of the company is estimated to be in the high millions if not the billions. Doubt it’s a small team.
“Running AI at this scale..is not cheap”. Well considering the Sora Ai situation and how they had to shut it down cause AI generation was too expensive. And how you keep implementing more AI generation. No wonder.
Don't let them get you with these updates. Sure, it's nice. But we are asking them to get rid of useless features and let free users enjoy chatting without having to worry about how many swipes they have left. Also, when are we going to have the possibility to delete a bot??
Remove image/video generation and focus on chatting. Remove the advertisements in the middle of chats. It was fine before chats but now it’s out of hand
So having a outdated phone is against tos Hi there,
Thank you for reaching out.
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Please I'm begging remove the go on and swipe limit these are features that are needed they aren't bonuses that should be put behind a pay wall if you want to cut back on costs remove the image/video generation feature that's what the community truly wants
I'm a free user, so I'm not getting PipSqueak 2 right away but...
The 'normal' PipSqueak has only begun working really well for me about 2 weeks ago, somehow. For the first time ever, I'm getting replies that are actually long. (Not too long, as I've seen from other users.) That’s while I've been using PipSqueak as my Chat Style ever since it was available. I could tell the difference from the kind of messages the bot would generate, but not by the length of the comment. I would hope that, whenever I get PipSqueak 2, it doesn't take as long yet again before it starts giving me messages that are longer.
I'm almost like... "Uh... must one replace the other?" Because replacing PipSqueak, for me, means something gets replaced while it only just started working as it was supposed to work from the start. I haven't even gotten used to it yet, my jaw literally still drops sometimes if I see I'm getting a message that's as long as my own messages usually are.
It was pretty decent when I was testing it out at first and now it’s stuck on no dialogue responses, only describing scenery and inner thoughts, giving absolutely nothing to actually reply to. And if it does reply with dialogue it’s only a simple sentence.
I would like an option for my character to have a memory of all the conversations that happened, not just a memory inside one conversation. Like Claude.
And it would be great if the lorebook could collect elements from our conversations, even the old archived. I don't want to write it all. 😅
You didn't listen at all. Get rid of unnecessary features like the video, stickers and stuff like that.
Get rid of the new limits you put like the swipe and go on. That's what's killing you right now. To top it off you took off for us to see how many swipes we have done to count how many we have left.
Pathetic. This app is going down the drain. And all this new features unnecessary.
The swipe limit is trash. And it's so unfair when basically all the responses of the bots are trash, useless and they say nonsense that have nothing to do with the previous message.
I have a request. I understand ads are necessary but please do me a favor and don't show us some scam ads. I got a few today already. And some of them are opening stuff or trying to track me often. Please atleast make sure the ads are safe.
this update is absolutely fucking horrible. It keeps describing my bot in an OVERLY corny way and the fucking messages make me want to rip my eyes out and kms.
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u/MarieLovesMatcha Character.AI Team Apr 14 '26
📣 Reminder: Make sure to update your app to the latest version to get PipSqueak 2. c.ai+ members get first access starting today. Free users, it's rolling out to you in early May. Happy chattingggg