Friend 2.0 brings voice, a $249 price tag, and a subscription to the controversial AI pendant
Friend, the AI companion wearable from founder Avi Schiffmann, relaunched on July 30 as Friend 2.0 with a built-in speaker that lets the pendant talk back — and a dramatically higher price of $249, up from the original $99 launch price. The company also introduced a $9.99 monthly subscription required to keep memories beyond 30 days.
The original Friend pendant launched in 2024 as an always-listening wearable that could hear a user's conversations and send text responses through a companion app — but could not speak aloud. The new version adds a speaker on the back of the device, making the pendant slightly bulkier but enabling real-time voice conversations. Each Friend 2.0 unit ships with a preset name, voice, and personality that users cannot manually change, according to the company's product page.
Pricing strategy shift
The price jump is the most notable change. Friend originally sold for $99 at launch roughly a year ago. The new $249 price positions the device as a premium AI companion, competing less with impulse-buy gadgets and more with dedicated wearable AI products. The company also introduced a $9.99 per month "memory subscription" — without it, the pendant only retains conversation history for 30 days.
This subscription model mirrors the monetization strategies used across the AI companion app industry, where platforms like Character.AI and Candy.ai have introduced premium tiers and virtual currency to generate recurring revenue. For Friend, the subscription is effectively mandatory for any user who wants the device to develop a lasting sense of personal context.
Mixed reception and broader context
The relaunch has drawn sharp criticism. Engadget called the new version "worse," noting the device carries "the same off-putting ideas about how humans should use AI." TechTimes reported that Friend 2.0 arrives amid research linking AI companion wearables to "deepening loneliness" rather than alleviating it. The original Friend pendant became notorious in 2024 when its New York City subway ads were vandalized with graffiti reading "Go make some real friends" and "surveillance capitalism."
Friend 2.0 arrives at a moment when the AI companion market is facing growing regulatory scrutiny. California's SB 243 companion chatbot law is now enforceable, and the EU AI Act's transparency rules took effect on August 2, requiring companies to disclose when people are interacting with AI. Friend's hardware-first approach — a physical pendant rather than a smartphone app — places it in a small but growing category of AI companions that includes devices like the Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1, both of which struggled to find product-market fit.
What this means for the companion industry
Friend's relaunch tests whether consumers will pay a premium for a dedicated AI companion device rather than using app-based alternatives. At $249 plus $9.99/month, the total first-year cost reaches $369 — well above the annual subscription for most AI companion apps. The device's preset personality (not user-changeable) also represents a design philosophy that diverges from platforms like Character.AI or Replika, where users customize their companion's identity.
If Friend 2.0 gains traction, it could validate the hardware companion category. If it flops, it will reinforce the message that consumers prefer flexible, app-based AI companions they can shape to their own preferences.