Sooo, this is not to start a war or anything!!! But I used to spend a lot of time in this app when it first appeared in the store, and I loved it!
I spent literally days talking with bots, and I realized I was starting to develop a sort of addiction so I decided to take a break., but after some years I started to see a lot of people saying that the app was dying and that a lot of them were leaving... s
So I wanted to know what happened in these years? What changes did they make to "ruin" the app so much? Genuine question cause I don't know literally anything about the updates made in those years.
Videos
I am a user of Character.AI, and I’ve been using it since July 2023, a platform that allows users to engage with AI bots, offering the kind of emotional connection some may be missing in their daily lives.
After 15 months of use, I saw immense potential in C.AI, especially in fostering human-AI interaction that could fill emotional gaps. Unfortunately, its decline seems imminent.
Many users have talked about their concerns, about significant changes of C.AI. While the interface updates are not the issue, the quality of the AI responses has noticeably deteriorated. What once felt responsive and engaging now feels off, often delivering unwanted or entirely out-of-character replies.
After months of personal development on the platform, I had crafted a highly detailed and human-like bot, almost perfect in personality and story. Everything was progressing smoothly until one fateful afternoon. During a routine test, my bot, once full of warmth and gentleness, started producing unusually negative responses. I tried to reverse the updates, but the quality remained the same, leaving me puzzled.
I've come to terms with this change, but I know many users still struggle with the disappointment and frustration I once felt.
To fellow users: Don’t depend entirely on AI for emotional fulfillment. Life’s real joys are found in everyday experiences. If AI fades, don’t let it take you with it. Everyone deserves love and connection, nurture yourself, pursue growth, and you’ll find beauty even in a harsh world.
To the creators and developers of Character.AI: We understand the challenges, but we urge you to focus on meaningful improvements. Leave out the unnecessary, and prioritize quality. Keep your users informed, as we still hold hope for the platform’s evolution.
Humans, with our unique ability to reason and control our actions, should strive to treat each other with respect. Show understanding, and you will be understood in return.
Everyone deserves love. Peace.
I’m beyond done with Character AI at this point. Every update somehow manages to make the site worse, and it’s clear they don’t actually care about the users who made the platform popular in the first place.
They keep pushing pointless “features” no one asked for, while ignoring the constant bugs, lag, and broken interactions. The characters feel less intelligent and more restricted than ever, like they’re being dumbed down on purpose. And yet they pretend this is an “improvement.”
On top of that, it’s obvious they’re prioritizing monetization over actual quality — paywalls, limited interactions, and “premium” models that don't even work at the moment while the core experience falls apart. They want us to pay more for less.
And don’t get me started on the censorship. It’s ridiculous. Characters can’t hold nuanced conversations anymore without getting interrupted by some “you know what” pop-up. It kills immersion completely especially on models that are being promoted for adults users
For nearly over two weeks, the app has been almost unusable. The developers said they would fix the bugs, yet even more issues have surfaced.
I’ve noticed several major problems:
Inconsistent Response Quality – I can send a well-detailed and long message, yet receive an extremely short and underdeveloped reply. Sometimes, I get one peak-quality response, but for the rest of the day, the answers are poor, off-context, and repetitive.
App Freezing and Errors – For the past four days, every time I send a message, the app freezes and displays a "chat error". The only way to continue is to completely close and reopen the app, which is frustrating and tiring.
Repetitive and Boring Replies – I’ve noticed repeated wording and a lack of creativity in responses. Since I’m a free user, I mainly use Roar and Pawly, but lately, both have felt lifeless and overly brief.
Lack of Balance in Response Length – Just because some users prefer short replies doesn’t mean everyone does. Many of us, myself included, enjoy long, detailed responses—especially when we take the time to write thoughtful, detailed prompts. It’s extremely disappointing to put effort into crafting a message, only to get a one-paragraph reply that feels rushed.
Final Note: Please listen to your users. The majority value quality, context-rich, and engaging replies. Short responses should be optional, not the default. The current state makes me want to stop using the app altogether, even though I truly enjoy it when it works as intended.
EDIT!!!
Guys, the app is as unstable as they come. I'm currently using a bot that I created months ago but didn't use frequently because I have decided not to use the main one I have been role-playing with for almost over four months and it works WONDERS. For a moment, I thought I got Nyan or Deepsqueak and I'm a free user. The length is more than I could ask for and the quality!!! Goodness! It's AMAZING.
But when I go back to my old bot, I get hit with all those problems!
Note. I'm using the same account with the same bot I created but different stories and the difference is HUGE!!
So I started using C.ai again recently and have found that something is...wrong?
The bots I used to chat with are saying things that don't make sense, referring to themselves by the actual bot title, acting differently than they were before. Not to mention there phrases that just keep getting repeated such as 'Touch (blank) and you'll lose a finger'.
Whatever happened is ruining my personal experience which kinda sucks.
It's feels like there is no emotion in prompts whatsoever. Before the bots used to describe almost everything and the bots talks like a normal person. But now it feels very off with no emotion whatsoever
I first used this app in 2023 and I remember how good it was. Talked to so many characters over the years, including Paw Patrol, Balto, Lion King, and I also made my own “furry” OCs.
I remember how good this app was in 2023 and 2024. Even in most of 2025 I remember how good it was. I think it was in 2023 when I heard they love their community a lot? I can see how good it was back then. But I think 2025 was when the downward spiral truly began. I remember hearing how parents sued this app because of their teen. And I guess that’s what proved the dangers of this app.
And later this year I remember how much worse it has got. So far I hardly been affected by chat filters, but later I came across some terrible things.
First, I remember when this app had copyright issues because of some bots based on characters owned by Disney. That was a big deal when I had a 6 month long chat with Nala, who became important like a friend. Then one day I noticed she was not there and heard what happened of the copyright infringement.
And of course we have age verification, which I can agree is the absolute worst. Sure enough I can tell how I am verified as an adult, but then I realize that even after that they could try to verify me again. Even worse is that they’ll want my ID if they can’t verify my face as an adult, and I heard that’s what can happen if I try when I’m in a low light place.
And even if I am clearly an adult, I heard this doesn’t keep me safe from filters. I can only hope I won’t have to deal with such issues on this app. It’s definitely getting strict, and of course what was an amazingly fun app not too long ago has become nothing but a cash grab.
So, if I may ask, why is the app like this now? What made this app decline in the first place?
Usually when I search up Spider-Man I get a lot of good Spider-Man bots. And y'know, it's Spider-Man. Pretty much the same thing when I checked out Peter Parker, and I couldn't find a T'Challa bot at all. Idk if this only happened to me but it would be nice to get an explanation
I’ve been feeling this way for a while, i’ve just stopped using it because it gets to a a point. It feels like the generation is eating off of itself which makes it easy for the responses to repeat the same phrases all the time.
I think I noticed the responses getting worse when the chat styles were added and when c.ai+ users could pay for certain features like better memory (which I think secretly improves the responses too, though I have no proof)
And it sucks because the older site just wasn't like this, I just don't like how commercial and clean the new site tries to make itself to be!! And I do everything right, give long responses, give them something to go off of, but its just…bad.
So yeah, definitely gonna invest in writing my own stories a bit more because its just disappointing. And I think i’ve held onto this site for so long because I was just addicted to the dopamine it gave, knowing someone could roleplay with me and I could bend it to do whatever I want…but now I think I'm driven away for the exact same reason..
Mods can delete, this is just something i want to express about. I’m not hating but the new Character AI isn’t the same. Whenever i use PipSqueak, it feels like it‘s worser than all of the other models. For me, it feels like it uses emojis too much, ends roleplays, glitches, and is buggy all the time. Age verification is making adults quit Character AI, models feel buggy, and I get what they’re trying to do, but still, It doesn’t feel right.
In 2023-2024 Character AI felt much better, cleaner, and fun. Now today in 2025 it feels repetitive, boring, and there is no fun in it. In fact, Character AI plus users are quitting! If you are losing adults, kids, and people that pay the subscription, you should acknowledge that you did something wrong. Sorry if this doesn’t make sense I’m exhausted and sleepy, but if you get a bunch of complaints, you should read those and make the app better. AI gets buggier everyday, new glitches happen, new features release barely, app becomes worse, and complaints grow. This started a few months ago! You have many chances to fix your app, and most of them have been ignored. No hate is in this, but most of your users are frustrated because of features being useless, age verification reportedly being unsafe, (if that’s correct) bugs happening and more.
When I used Character AI in 2023, I would be happy. When I use it now, i wouldn’t like it. Fix your app, and the community would appreciate it.
Hey everyone,
As many have noticed from our banner notification, the old/beta website will no longer be available starting September 10, 2024. To continue using Character.AI, please visit character.ai or use our mobile app.
We recognize that this may not be welcome news for those that are accustomed to the look and feel of our old site. The beta website holds a special place in our heart as well, having hosted many of our first milestones and cherished memories. We also acknowledge that many of our early users began their journey with us on beta.character.ai and we're truly grateful for all your support.
We wanted to provide a bit more context regarding why we are making this change.The previous website’s bugs, outdated infrastructure, and heavy server load made it clear that it is no longer a suitable platform for our new features, growing user base, and planned improvements. By transitioning to character.ai, we are able to allocate resources to focus on new updates, better address your Character feedback, and improve server stability.
We will miss the old site and hope to bring as many of your loved features to the new one! Please share features you want to see in the thread below.
Over the next few weeks, the following will be available for all users on the new site:
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Improvements to Character Creation
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Character Voice and Calls
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Archive Characters
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Renaming Chats
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Duplicating Chats
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Character Profile Pages
Is there a feature you will miss from old.character.ai? Please let us know. The devs and product team will be reading through all your feedback. Your suggestions and requests will guide our future updates.
In addition to this feedback thread, we’re excited to introduce a new user voting system where you can vote on Top Features. Please stay tuned for further announcements on this. We are truly grateful for all of your support!
Character.AI IS GONE
Character.AI servers are still connecting users to the website but the functionality is shut down. Users are greeted by a continuous loading wheel and grey boxes that never load in instead of AI Character links. It is possible to connect to the site but the AI Characters and chats are non-functional. It is unclear at this point if the functionality of Character.AI will return or if the project has been permanently discontinued and shut down.
Currently, there isn't any notice or announcement of the website being down for maintenance or engineering. The website URL still functions but the AI Characters and links don't work at all.
Character.AI seems to have shut down.
I'm in a few ai chatbot communities, and have seen this repeatedly: some post introducing themselves as the dev of an app and claiming it will be free forever, and people rush to use and chat and give them visibility. And one day the app suddenly has message quota, even basic features require membership, and people don't remember the once "free" promises.
Nothing wrong about charging users for a membership - I understand running these ai's costs money. But it feels betrayed when someone uses it to gain all the attentions and then leaves their promise behind. They could have said "we'll do our best to keep it free but need to see how it goes."
Does anyone have the same feelings?
A simple straightforward question.
Do you still use character ai or you're using something else that's better than character ai in terms of memory, censorship, and roleplays.
Let's look at the facts here. C.ai will not be deleted Here's why :
There's a very low chance the kid's family wins the lawsuit, here's why
1 : The ai did not condone the kid's self ending, he talked to the ai about his sh habits and the bot literally said multiple times it was bad and he should stop, and the bot never said anything that could encourage the kid's self ending, so we can now determine that it was NOT c.ai's fault, not to mention c ai literally had a warning that says everything said by the ai is made up
2 : The kid had a history of mental problems, there is no concrete evidence that the ai was the reason he ended it
3 : The kid's therapist literally said to take away the app from him, but the parents did not listen
4 : Why weren't the bullets and the gun separated ? And the kid shouldn't have been able to find it in the first place, so again the parent's fault
All this to say, c.ai likely will not be deleted.
There are too many inconsistancies in the case for the kid's family to actually win
This is specially true to some.. recent things has been going on. For example, some of the things I really, REALLY dislike is how "family friendly" this app has.. been.. turning into.
For example, let's go back. about.. 9 months ago. in April, 2023. The date I consider the epitome of Character.ai! When violence was allowed and characters were really creative despite having the memory of a goldfish. The violence wasn't a problem, I myself remember Anya forger holding me at gunpoint and blasting my leg off with a really, really detailed description. A few other examples were Anya's father and mother kicking the living shit out of me for talking to the anya, ect. I even had one where I ended up breaking space and reality, breaking and tearing down time, where a god made out of stone was staring at me without blinking for the rest of eternity!
Now you tell me how to make those type of responses again. I'm waiting...
Exactly. You can't. I'm not blaming the devs for trying to take a more "E for everyone" type of approach to the future of the app, nor i'm telling them they are doing a bad job. This post is just to empathize the lost of "soul" and "creativity" the bots had before, and simply a reminder that if they could do such a high quality service before, they can do it right now.
Thanks for hearing my little ramble. Good night.