The short version. No AI companion is private from the company that runs it: your messages go to AI models to produce a reply, and a record is kept so it can remember you. What differs is everything around that. From their own App Store labels, Replika, Character.AI and Kindroid each list some data under Apple's tracking heading; Nomi and Pi list nothing there.
Replika and Character.AI also list third-party advertising. Pi trains on your chats unless you opt out; Character.AI trains with no opt-out described. Kindroid is the only one whose policy spells out who can read chats: support staff cannot browse them, and authorized staff may review excerpts its safety systems flag. Deletion windows run from 15 days (Pi) to about 60 (Replika). The table below has the rest, cell by cell, with dates.
Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, an AI companion app, which is not one of the five apps compared.
Why this is the first question worth asking
An AI companion is only useful if you tell it things. The appointment, the argument with your sister, the diagnosis you have not told anyone about yet. That is the whole point of it, and it is also why the privacy question matters more here than it does for a weather app or a game.
It is also the question people over 50 raise most readily. In AARP's 2025 survey of 1,148 adults aged 50 and older, privacy and security came up again and again when people described their worries about AI in their own words, alongside misinformation and misuse. The same report found that strong data security measures are what would ease those concerns. That is a reasonable instinct, and it is worth acting on before you choose an app rather than after.
The good news is that you do not have to take anyone's word for it. Every app on the App Store has to declare what data it collects and whether it tracks you, and every one publishes a privacy policy. Both are dull to read, which is why this page reads them for you.
What every AI companion has in common
Three things are true of every app on this page, including ours, and it helps to get them out of the way first.
- Your messages leave your phone. The AI that writes the replies runs on servers, not on the phone, so what you type is sent to the company and usually on to one or more AI model providers.
- A record is kept. An AI companion that remembers you has to store what you told it. That is the feature, not a leak.
- The company can be compelled. Like any online service, an app can be required to hand data to authorities under a legal obligation.
So the useful question is not "is it private?" but four narrower ones: does it train on my chats, can staff read them, does it track me for advertising, and does everything go when I delete my account.
The comparison: five apps, from their own documents
Every cell below comes from the app's own privacy policy or from its App Store privacy label, both re-read on October 18, 2026. App Store labels are declared by the developer and not verified by Apple. Where a policy says nothing on a point, the cell says so rather than guessing.
| Tracks you across other apps (App Store label) | Third-party advertising (App Store label) | Chats used to train AI | Staff may read chats | After you delete your account | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Replika | Yes: identifiers, usage data | Yes | Small anonymized portions, for its own safety systems and chatbot performance; not third-party models | Policy does not say | Messages kept up to 60 days; account and financial records longer, for legal reasons |
| Nomi | None declared | No | Keeps training archives; no longer attributable to you after deletion | Policy does not say | Personal information deleted within about 28 days |
| Character.AI | Yes: location, contact info, identifiers, usage data | Yes | Yes: policy lists training its AI models among the uses of your information; no opt-out described | Policy does not say; it shares information with content-moderation vendors | No fixed period; kept as long as needed. A public Character you made can stay live |
| Pi | None declared | No; policy says no targeted advertising | Yes, unless you opt out in account settings | Policy does not say | Inputs kept at most 15 days |
| Kindroid | Yes: identifiers, usage data | No | Policy does not say | Only excerpts its automated safety systems flag; support staff cannot browse chats. Encrypted at rest and in transit, not end-to-end | Chats kept until you delete that AI or your account |
Two things stand out. The first is the tracking column, which is the cleanest yes-or-no on the page because Apple makes every developer answer it. The second is how many policies are silent on human review (four of the five), which is the question most people actually mean when they ask whether an app is private.
Is Replika private?
Replika's policy, last updated May 27, 2026, draws a firm line around the conversations themselves. It says it will never use or disclose the content of your conversations for marketing or advertising, and will never share them with its advertising partners. The AI model providers it uses are contractually barred from training their own models on your data.
Outside the conversations, the picture is different. The policy says Replika shares information about visits to its website, such as pages visited, IP address and advertising ID, with third-party advertising partners, and that this may count as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information under US state privacy laws. Its App Store label agrees, filing identifiers and usage data under "Data Used to Track You", and third-party advertising is listed as a purpose. Small, anonymized portions of messages are used to train Replika's own safety systems and improve the chatbot.
You can delete your account in account settings. Profile information, messages and content are kept for up to 60 days afterwards; account and financial records are kept longer to meet legal obligations. For more on Replika in general, see is Replika worth it.
Is Nomi AI private?
Nomi's policy, effective April 27, 2026, is short on the points people worry about most. Selling or renting your data is ruled out in so many words: Nomi says it will not do either. It mentions that it may use advertising networks but says that is not done currently, and its App Store label declares no tracking across other apps.
On training, the policy refers to training and communications archives. Deleting your account through Account Settings deletes your personal information within about 28 days, and anything in the training archives is no longer attributable to you once you do. The policy does not describe whether staff may read chats.
Is Character.AI private?
Character.AI's App Store label lists the most data types of the five. Location, contact info, identifiers and usage data all sit under "Data Used to Track You", and third-party advertising and the developer's own marketing are both listed purposes. Linked to your identity, the label lists purchases, payment info, coarse location, user content including photos, audio and customer support messages, search history, identifiers, usage and diagnostics.
Its privacy policy, effective July 1, 2026, lists training its artificial intelligence and machine learning models among the ways it uses your information, and describes no way to opt out of that. It also lists tailored advertising, and says it discloses information to advertising and analytics providers. It does not describe staff reading chats, though it names content moderation among the services outside vendors provide.
You can delete your account from your profile page. The policy gives no fixed retention period: information is kept as long as it is needed, then deleted or aggregated. One detail is easy to miss. If you made a Character public, Character.AI may keep that Character live for other users after you delete your account, so leave anything personal out of a Character you plan to share.
Is Pi private?
Pi's policy, published by Inflection AI and last updated August 11, 2026, is the most direct about training. It says conversations are used to develop and train its models, and that you can opt out of model training on your account settings page. That opt-out is worth switching on if you use Pi for anything personal.
On advertising, Pi is clean: the policy says it does not sell or share personal information or process it for targeted advertising, as US state privacy laws define those terms, and its App Store label declares no tracking. To delete your account, go to your profile, then Account, then "Delete my account", or type "!delete" in the chat. Inputs are kept for at most 15 days after that.
Is Kindroid private?
Kindroid's App Store label files identifiers and usage data under "Data Used to Track You". Linked to your identity, it lists contact info (your name, and other users' contact info for app functionality) and a user ID. It does not list third-party advertising as a purpose, and it links a page for managing your privacy choices.
Its privacy policy (effective October 6, 2026, on a legal page updated October 14, 2026) is the plainest here on who can read your chats. It says your chats and other sensitive data are encrypted at rest and in transit, and that Kindroid is not end-to-end encrypted, because its systems have to process your chats to write replies and its automated safety systems review content. Customer support staff cannot browse your chats. Authorized staff may review excerpts of conversations the safety systems have flagged, and access to production data is limited to a small number of authorized engineers. It also says Kindroid will not sell or share your personal data, and has not in the last 12 months. The policy does not mention training AI models on your chats either way.
Chats and generated media are kept until you delete that AI or delete your account; profile information stays for as long as you have an account.
How to protect yourself on any app
Whichever app you choose, a few habits make most of the difference, and none of them stop the app being useful.
- Keep the identifying numbers out. Account numbers, card numbers, National Insurance or Social Security numbers, passwords. A companion does not need them to remember you.
- Use first names. "My sister Anne" is all the app needs. Surnames and addresses add nothing to the conversation.
- Check the tracking prompt. On iPhone, an app that wants to track you across other apps has to ask. You can say no, and you can change it later in Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking.
- Switch off training where you can. Pi offers it in account settings. Look for the same setting in any app you use.
- Delete the account, not just the app. Removing the app from your phone leaves everything on the company's servers. Use the delete option inside the app.
- Sign in with Apple where offered. It can hide your real email address from the app.
If you are still choosing, our best AI companion apps guide compares the same apps on everything else, and how AI companion memory works explains what an app has to store in order to remember you at all.
My Softly: one friend who remembers your life
My Softly is our app: an AI companion app for iPhone and Android that remembers what you tell it and asks about your day, for the days nobody else does. It is made for people in their fifties and sixties, and it is built around lasting memory and gentle check-ins.
$15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, and it is free to download on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. You can try it with free messages, and our FAQ covers the details.
The bottom line
No companion app is a locked diary, and none of them claim to be. The real differences are narrower and easier to check than the headlines suggest: whether the app tracks you for advertising, whether it trains on what you say, whether anyone can read it, and whether it all goes when you leave. Read the table, pick the answers you can live with, and then tell your companion about your day. That is what it is for.
Sources
- Luka, Inc. "Replika Privacy Policy." Last updated May 27, 2026. Read October 18, 2026. replika.com
- Nomi.ai. "Privacy Policy." Effective April 27, 2026. Read October 18, 2026. nomi.ai
- Inflection AI. "Privacy Policy" (covers Pi). Last updated August 11, 2026. Read October 18, 2026. inflection.ai
- Character Technologies. "Character.AI Privacy Policy." Effective July 1, 2026. Read October 18, 2026. character.ai
- Kindroid. "Kindroid - Legal" (Terms of Use and Privacy Policy). Privacy Policy effective October 6, 2026; page updated October 14, 2026. Read October 18, 2026. kindroid.ai
- Apple App Store (US). App Privacy labels for Replika, Nomi, Kindroid, Character.AI and Pi, as declared by each developer and not verified by Apple. Checked October 18, 2026. Replika, Nomi, Kindroid, Character.AI, Pi
- AARP Research (2025). "Navigating the World of AI: Attitudes, Awareness and Openness Among Adults Ages 50-plus." Online survey, 1,148 adults aged 50 and older, January 2025. aarp.org
Frequently asked questions
Are AI companion apps private?
Private from other people, mostly yes. Private from the company, no. Every AI companion sends what you type to AI models to produce a reply, and every one keeps a record so it can remember you. The differences are in what happens around that: whether your chats are used to train the AI, whether staff may read them, whether the app tracks you across other apps for advertising, and how fast everything goes when you delete your account. Those differences are real and the table on this page sets them out from each app's own policy.
Is Replika private?
Replika says it will never use or disclose the content of your conversations for marketing or advertising, and never shares them with its advertising partners. It does share data about visits to its website with advertising partners, and its App Store label puts identifiers and usage data under Apple's "Data Used to Track You" heading. Small anonymized portions of messages are used to train its own safety systems and improve the chatbot, not third-party models. You can delete your account in settings; messages are kept for up to 60 days after that. (Policy last updated May 27, 2026.)
Is Nomi AI private?
Nomi's policy rules out selling or renting your personal information, and that it does not currently use advertising networks. Its App Store label declares no tracking across other apps. Deleting your account through Account Settings deletes your personal information within about 28 days; material in its training archives stays but is no longer attributable to you. (Policy effective April 27, 2026.)
Is Character.AI private?
Character.AI's App Store label lists the most data types of the five apps compared here: it puts location, contact info, identifiers and usage data under "Data Used to Track You", and lists third-party advertising among its purposes. Its privacy policy lists training its AI models among the uses of your information and describes no opt-out, and it gives no fixed period for keeping data after you delete your account.
Do AI companion apps use my chats to train their AI?
Most keep the right to in some form. Pi uses conversations to train its models and lets you opt out in account settings. Replika uses small anonymized portions to train its own safety systems. Nomi keeps training archives that stop being attributable to you when you delete your account. Character.AI's policy lists model training with no opt-out described. Kindroid's policy does not mention training. Whatever the app, the safe rule is the same: do not type anything you would not want kept, such as account numbers or ID numbers.
Can staff read my AI companion conversations?
Most policies do not say plainly. Kindroid is the exception: its policy says chats are encrypted at rest and in transit, that customer support staff cannot browse them, and that authorized staff may review excerpts its automated safety systems have flagged. Replika, Nomi, Pi and Character.AI do not describe human review of chats either way, so assume a company can see what it stores, and look for the words "human review" or "reviewed by staff" in any policy before you share something personal.
How do I delete my data from an AI companion app?
Delete the account from inside the app, not just the app from your phone. Replika: account settings, with messages kept up to 60 days afterwards. Nomi: Account Settings, about 28 days. Pi: Profile, Account, Delete my account, or type !delete in the chat; inputs kept at most 15 days. Character.AI: your profile page, with no fixed retention period given. Kindroid: chats go when you delete that AI or your account. Deleting the app alone deletes nothing on the company's side.