Talkie AI, PolyBuzz and Replika Alternatives: The App Store Sets the Filter
Talkie, PolyBuzz and Replika are three different products with the same complaint in their reviews: the reply that got cut off, sanitised or replaced by a gentle deflection just as the scene got somewhere. If you are searching for a Talkie AI alternative, a PolyBuzz alternative or a Replika alternative, it is almost always that moment.
This article explains why the three of them converge on the same wall, what each does well, and what to use instead depending on what you actually want. We build a competing chat, so the last section is biased and says so. Facts are from each app's public pages and 2026 reviews as of September 2026 and change often.
Why Three Different Apps Have the Same Filter
All three ship as iOS and Android apps. Both stores enforce content rules on the apps they distribute, and a chat product that lives in the store inherits the ceiling whether or not its users want it. Talkie has been pulled from and restored to both stores at various points. PolyBuzz tiers its filter by subscription and still blurs some categories on every tier. Replika removed explicit roleplay in 2023 and did not bring it back.
The store also explains the other shared property: moderation. An app that can be removed for content has to be able to read what happens in it, so all three store conversations readable on their servers and reserve the right to review them. We covered what "no filter" can honestly mean in AI chat with no filter; the short version is that an app in the store cannot mean it.
The Three, Fairly
Talkie AI
Good at: polish, voice, collectible cards, a big library of user-made characters, anime and realistic. The catch: ads every few minutes on free, about $10 a month for Talkie+; explicit content blocked or sanitised mid-reply, with a filter that tightened through 2025 and 2026; images from a general model with the usual face drift; bans reported without warning; and independent researchers have traced its data flows across several jurisdictions.
PolyBuzz
Good at: the most anime-friendly of the three, native apps, a filter that loosens as you pay. The catch: an ad modal every few messages on free; tiers around $10, $20 and $30 where the filter, image blurring and memory length are what you are buying; about thirty messages of memory on the lower tiers; generic images with face drift; and user reports through 2026 that the filter is getting stricter, not looser.
Replika
Good at: the companion experience - a consistent avatar, voice, memory of you, a wellness framing that some people genuinely value. The catch: Pro at about $20 a month and Ultra at about $30 for romance mode and the better model; explicit roleplay removed in February 2023 for all new accounts; no characters, only your one companion; and a five-million-euro fine from Italy's data protection authority in 2025 over legal basis and age checks.
The Alternatives, by What You Want
| If you want | Use | Trade |
|---|---|---|
| The same convenience, adult content allowed | Candy AI or a similar subscription companion | An original companion, not a character; account tied to your card; chats readable |
| Uncensored character chat on the web | CrushOn AI, SpicyChat | User-made cards, 50 or 100 free messages a day, generic paid images, chats readable, age verification spreading |
| The best replies and you will set up a model | Janitor AI with your own API key | Second bill, setup evening, chats readable |
| Nothing leaves your machine | SillyTavern with a local model | A real GPU and configuration |
| The actual character, pictures of her, chats nobody reads | goongen.ai Roleplay, in build | Not open yet; anime characters first; crypto only |
The first four are covered in depth in our Character AI alternative guide and, for CrushOn specifically, in CrushOn AI alternative.
The Question Underneath: Companion or Character
Talkie and PolyBuzz sell characters by name; Replika sells one companion. Both are honest about what they are, and both leave the same thing out: a character who is actually her. A user-made "Makima" is a stranger's paragraph in front of a shared model, and your Replika is consistent precisely because she comes from nowhere. If week-three conversations keep going flat, it is usually this and not the filter. We wrote up the difference, with a three-message test, in our AI character chat guide and in AI companion apps in 2026.
Where We Fit
We are the team behind goongen.ai, so treat this as the biased part.
Our Roleplay chat is in build and not open yet. The AI roleplay page shows what it will look like and collects interest. If you need a replacement this week, the table above is where to go.
What we are building is the version without the store ceiling:
- Web only, no app store, no filter beyond two hard lines - nothing involving minors, no non-consensual material involving real people - and no model that breaks character to lecture you.
- The actual character. Every one of the 1,400+ anime characters in our catalog runs on a card built from canon: dialogue voice, speech habits, what she avoids, motives, fears, flaws. Three stories set in her series, six open ones, your own.
- She sends photos inside the chat, drawn from her reply by the model trained on her - not a general model with a drifting face.
- No subscription. 1 credit per reply; photos cost 5 credits per delivered image, refunded if they fail, packs from $0.99, crypto only, no API key.
- Nobody reads it. Everything you write is locked so only your password opens it; we never see the password, because the login checks it without it leaving your device. No ads, nothing mined - credits pay for GPU time.
The honest tradeoffs: not shipped; anime characters first, realistic and custom ones later; no voice, no native app; crypto only; and if you lose your password and the backup file, your stories are gone.
Closing
Talkie, PolyBuzz and Replika share a filter because they share a distribution channel. Leaving one for another mostly moves you between shades of the same ceiling. The real alternatives are on the web, and the good ones are the ones where the character stays in the scene and is actually herself.
The AI roleplay page is where ours lives, and the anime demo gives every account 5 free images of the same characters today, no card and no app.