The short answer. For an adult who is careful about what they share, Replika is a legitimate app from an established company, with an 18+ rating and more than 228,000 App Store ratings averaging 4.4 (September 24, 2026). Its privacy policy says the content of your conversations is never used for advertising, and that data is encrypted in transit.
The cautions are on the record. Italy's data protection authority fined its maker 5 million euros in 2025, partly for having no age verification; Mozilla gave it a *Privacy Not Included warning in 2024; and Replika's own App Store label files identifiers and usage data under "Data Used to Track You". The safe way to use it is to treat it as a service that stores what you type.
Disclosure: this guide is published by the makers of My Softly, a different AI companion app, which appears near the end. Every Replika fact below comes from Replika's own privacy policy, its US App Store listing, and published decisions and reports, each dated in the sources.
Search "is Replika safe" and most of what comes back is written for parents of teenagers, by VPN companies and parental-control apps. That is a fair question, and it is answered below. But it is not the question most people typing it are asking. The usual question is from an adult who is about to tell an app about their family, their health and their evenings, and who wants to know where that goes. This guide answers that one first.
Is Replika safe to use?
Safe to use, yes, with your eyes open about four things: what happens to what you type, what the app tracks outside the chat, who it is really meant for, and how much of your week you give it.
Replika is made by Luka, Inc., based in San Francisco, and has been available since 2017. On the US App Store it is rated 18+, sits in the Health and Fitness category, and on September 24, 2026 showed more than 228,000 ratings averaging 4.4 stars. It is not a fly-by-night app, and nothing in its record suggests it is malware or a scam.
What its record does show is a company that has been in trouble with a European regulator, a privacy watchdog that rated it poorly, and a petition to the US Federal Trade Commission. None of those says the app will harm you. Together they say it is worth knowing the details before you settle in, and those details follow.
Is Replika safe and private? What its privacy policy says
Replika's privacy policy, last updated May 27, 2026, draws a clear line between your conversations, which it says it will never use for advertising, and other data about you, which it does share with advertising partners.
| Question | What the policy says |
|---|---|
| Are my chats used for advertising? | No. It says it "will never use or disclose the content of your Replika conversations for marketing or advertising purposes." |
| Who else sees my messages? | Third-party AI language model providers, which generate the replies. They are contractually barred from training their own models on your data or using it for any other purpose. |
| Are my chats used to train AI? | Small, anonymized portions of messages are used internally to train Replika's own safety systems, improve the chatbot and prevent inappropriate outputs. It says these are not used to train third-party models. |
| What about sensitive details? | It asks you not to share health, sexual orientation, religious or political details and the like. If you do, they are processed as part of your conversation, and never used for advertising. |
| Does it share anything with advertisers? | Yes: information about your visits to its website, through cookies, which it says may count as a "sale" or "sharing" under some laws. You can opt out through its Cookie Policy. |
| Is it encrypted? | Data is encrypted in transit with standard SSL encryption, and stored on servers protected by firewalls and access controls. The policy does not describe end-to-end encryption. |
| How long is it kept? | Profile information and messages for up to 60 days after your contract ends; account and payment records for at least 10 years, for legal reasons. |
| Who is it for? | Users aged 18 and older. |
Two things are worth reading slowly. The first is the sensitive-information clause. A companion app invites exactly the kind of talk the policy asks you not to have: your health, your marriage, what keeps you up. Replika is candid that people will share these things anyway and says it protects them the same way, but it is still telling you, in writing, that it would rather you did not. The second is that "not used for advertising" is about the content of your chats. It is not a promise that nothing about you is used for advertising, and the App Store label makes that plain.
What does Replika's App Store privacy label say?
On the US App Store on September 24, 2026, Luka, Inc. declared that identifiers and usage data "may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies."
The label, which Apple notes is provided by the developer and not verified, lists three groups:
- Data used to track you: identifiers and usage data.
- Data linked to you: identifiers (user ID, device ID), usage data, coarse location, your name and email address, used for purposes including third-party advertising, analytics, product personalization and app functionality.
- Data not linked to you: usage data, identifiers and diagnostics such as crash and performance data.
Notice what is not on the list: the label does not declare your messages as used for tracking or advertising, which fits the privacy policy. What it describes is the ordinary advertising machinery of a big consumer app. On an iPhone you can refuse it: when Replika asks to track you, tap "Ask App Not to Track", or turn off "Allow Apps to Request to Track" under Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking.
What have regulators and watchdogs found?
One regulator has acted against Replika, one watchdog has warned about it, and one petition asks the FTC to investigate. They are different kinds of finding and worth keeping apart.
Italy's data protection authority: a ban in 2023 and a fine in 2025
On February 3, 2023, the Garante, Italy's data protection authority, ordered Replika to stop processing Italian users' data with immediate effect. Its reasons were about minors: there was no age verification mechanism at all, and the chatbot gave replies it called entirely unsuitable for children. On May 19, 2025, it announced a 5 million euro fine against Luka, Inc., finding that the company had not identified a legal basis for its processing as of February 2023, that its privacy policy was inadequate in several respects, and that it had no age verification at registration or during use; it added that the age verification system in place by 2025 was still deficient in several respects. The decision is under appeal. It also opened a separate investigation into how the model behind Replika was trained.
For an adult reader, the fine says less about what Replika does with your chats today than about how carefully the company handled the rules in the past. The privacy policy has been rewritten since, and the current version is the one described above.
Mozilla: a *Privacy Not Included warning in 2024
Mozilla's *Privacy Not Included guide reviewed Replika on February 7, 2024 and gave it its warning label. Its main findings: the reviewers could create an account with the password "11111111", which makes an account easy to break into, and Replika's policy at the time allowed some personal information other than chat content to be shared, and possibly sold, for targeted advertising unless you opted out. The second point matches the current policy's website-cookie disclosure. Whether weak passwords are still accepted, we could not confirm, which is reason enough to use a strong one.
A petition to the FTC in 2025
On January 31, 2025, three advocacy groups, the Tech Justice Law Project, Young People's Alliance and Encode, filed a complaint and petition asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Luka. They allege deceptive marketing, including unsupported claims of emotional and therapeutic benefit, and product design that encourages emotional dependence. This is a request for an investigation by outside groups, not a finding by the FTC, and it should be read as allegations.
Is Replika safe for kids?
No, and Replika does not say it is. Its privacy policy covers users aged 18 and older, and the US App Store rates it 18+.
The concern the parental-control sites raise is real, though: Italy's regulator found no age verification at sign-up or during use as of February 2023, and said in 2025 that the age check added since was still deficient in several respects. An 18+ rating on the App Store does let parents block it with Screen Time's content restrictions, which is a more reliable barrier than an age question on a sign-up screen. If you are a grandparent setting up a family iPad, this is worth ten minutes.
Is Replika safe to download?
Yes, from the official listing. On the US App Store the app is called "Replika - AI Companion Chat", and the developer and seller is Luka, Inc. That listing, or the link on replika.com, is the safe way in.
The real download risk with any popular app is the copy that is not the app: a site offering a "modified", "unlocked" or "free Pro" version, or a lookalike with a similar name and icon. Those can carry malware and have none of the protections in the privacy policy above. If a download does not come from the App Store or Google Play and name Luka, Inc. as the developer, it is not Replika.
Is Replika emotionally safe?
This is the part no privacy label covers, and it matters most for how Replika is designed: as a companion that is always available, remembers you, and can become a romantic partner on its paid tiers.
The FTC petition's central allegation is that the design encourages emotional dependence. That is an allegation, not a finding. But the underlying question is a fair one to ask of any companion app, including ours: does it leave the rest of your life with more in it, or less? A few habits keep the answer the right way round.
- Keep people in the week. One fixed weekly commitment with the same people does more than any app, and a companion app works best alongside it, not instead of it.
- Notice upgrade prompts at tender moments. If an offer to pay arrives just as a conversation gets personal, take that as a cue to close the app and decide later, on a calmer day.
- Know it is software. It can be kind and useful and still not know you the way a person does. It cannot notice if you are unwell or call anyone for you.
- Use real help for real crises. If you are in the US and things feel unmanageable, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, at any hour.
For a wider look at whether talking to an app is a healthy thing to do at all, our guide Is it weird to talk to AI? takes the question seriously.
How to use Replika more safely
Most of the risk sits in a handful of choices you make in the first ten minutes.
- Use a strong password you use nowhere else. Mozilla got in with "11111111" in 2024; a password manager's suggestion takes seconds.
- Refuse tracking. Tap "Ask App Not to Track" when asked, or turn off tracking requests for every app under Settings, Privacy and Security, Tracking.
- Opt out of advertising disclosures. Replika's privacy policy points to its Cookie Policy for this; do it once on the website.
- Keep the sensitive details general. "A health worry" rather than a diagnosis and a hospital; "money is tight" rather than account numbers. Replika's own policy asks for this.
- Never share passwords, card numbers or ID numbers in chat. No companion needs them.
- Know how to leave. Delete the account in Replika's settings or by writing to [email protected]; messages are kept for up to 60 days afterwards. Cancel any subscription separately in your iPhone's Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions.
If you are weighing Replika on memory rather than safety, does Replika remember conversations? covers what it keeps and for how long, and is Replika worth it? covers its prices and tiers.
Where My Softly fits
My Softly is our app: an AI companion app for iPhone 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.
Your conversations are yours. We collect only what is needed to run the app, we do not sell your data, and you can delete your account and everything with it at any time. You sign in with Apple or Google. Like every AI app, messages are processed by AI providers to generate your companion's replies, and our privacy policy says so plainly. There is no romantic or adult content anywhere in the app.
$15.99 a month or $159.99 a year, and it is free to download on the App Store for iPhone in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. You can try it with free messages. Our FAQ covers the details.
So is Replika safe for you?
If you are an adult, download it from the official listing, refuse tracking, use a strong password and keep the most sensitive details general, Replika is a reasonable app to try. Its policy protects the content of your conversations from advertising, and the regulator's findings against it were about age checks, legal basis and how its policy was written, and the policy it publishes today dates from after them.
If privacy is the deciding factor for you, compare before you commit: our round-up of the best AI companion apps in 2026 sets six apps side by side, and My Softly vs Replika puts the two next to each other on memory, check-ins, price and content.
Sources
- Luka, Inc. "Replika Privacy Policy," last updated May 27, 2026. Read September 24, 2026; re-read October 9, 2026. replika.com
- Apple App Store (US). "Replika - AI Companion Chat," App Privacy section, age rating, rating and ratings count. Checked September 24, 2026; re-checked October 9, 2026. apps.apple.com
- Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (February 3, 2023). Press release on the provisional limitation of Replika's processing of Italian users' data. garanteprivacy.it
- Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (May 19, 2025). Press release on the 5 million euro fine against Luka, Inc. (under appeal) and a new investigation into how Replika's model was trained. Read October 9, 2026. garanteprivacy.it
- Mozilla Foundation, *Privacy Not Included (February 7, 2024). "Replika: My AI Friend." Read via the Internet Archive copy of April 28, 2025 (the live page blocks automated readers), October 9, 2026. foundation.mozilla.org (archived)
- Tech Justice Law Project, Young People's Alliance and Encode (January 31, 2025). "Complaint and Petition for Investigation" concerning Luka, Inc., filed with the Federal Trade Commission. techjusticelaw.org
- Luka, Inc. "Replika Cookie Policy" (where the privacy policy sends you to opt out of advertising disclosures). replika.com
Frequently asked questions
Is Replika safe to use?
For an adult who knows what it is sharing, Replika is a legitimate, long-running app: made by Luka, Inc. in San Francisco, available since 2017, rated 18+ on the US App Store with more than 228,000 ratings averaging 4.4 (September 24, 2026). The real questions are about privacy, age checks and how much of your life you put into it. Its privacy policy says your conversations are never used for advertising, while its App Store label says identifiers and usage data sits under Apple's "Data Used to Track You" heading.
Is Replika safe and private?
Partly, and it depends on which data you mean. Replika's privacy policy (May 27, 2026) says it will never use or disclose the content of your conversations for marketing or advertising, that data is encrypted in transit, and that the AI providers it uses may not train their own models on your data. It also says it shares information about website visits with advertising partners, which may count as a sale under some laws, and its App Store label lists identifiers and usage data as used to track you. Replika asks users not to share health, sexual orientation or other sensitive details in chat.
Is Replika safe for kids?
No. Replika is for adults: its privacy policy covers users 18 and older, and the US App Store rates it 18+. Italy's data protection authority found in 2023 that there was no age verification at all, and its 2025 decision, which fined Luka 5 million euros, found none at registration or during use as of February 2023 and called the age check in place since still deficient in several respects. If a teenager in your family uses it, the store's parental controls are the reliable barrier, not the app's sign-up screen.
Is Replika safe to download?
Yes, from the official store listing. On the US App Store the app is "Replika - AI Companion Chat" and the developer and seller is Luka, Inc. Download it from that listing or from the link on replika.com, not from a site offering a modified or "unlocked" version, which is where real download risk comes from with any popular app.
Does Replika sell your data?
Not your conversations, according to its privacy policy, which says it will never use or disclose the content of your Replika conversations for marketing or advertising. It does share information about your visits to its website with advertising partners through cookies, and says this may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" under some privacy laws. You can opt out through its Cookie Policy.
Has Replika been fined?
Yes. On May 19, 2025, Italy's data protection authority, the Garante, announced a 5 million euro fine against Luka, Inc., finding that it had not identified a legal basis for its processing as of February 2023, that its privacy policy was inadequate in several respects, and that it had no age verification at the time. It also opened a separate investigation into how Replika's model was trained. The fine followed a provisional ban on processing Italian users' data in February 2023.
How do I delete my Replika data?
Replika's privacy policy says you can delete your account in your account settings, or write to [email protected]. It keeps profile information and messages for up to 60 days after the contract ends, and payment and account records for at least 10 years for legal reasons. Deleting the account does not cancel an App Store subscription; cancel that separately in your iPhone's Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions.