Kindroid alternatives

Hemmingway Unlocked is the alternative to Kindroid we make, for people who come for the writing: long roleplay and adult scenes in text, with the chats kept in their own browser. If you want a Kin who calls you, sends selfies and remembers your week, Unlocked is the wrong pick, and another companion app such as Nomi or Replika is much closer to what you have.

A Kin is several things at once. It is a character you wrote, a voice, a face in selfies, and a memory that builds up over months. People who look elsewhere usually want one of those things more than the others, or want it kept somewhere else. Which one decides where you should go.

We make Hemmingway Unlocked. What we say about the others comes from their own sites.

What Kindroid is

Kindroid's site calls it an AI friend who listens, remembers and grows with you.

• Your Kin. You choose its name, personality, backstory, appearance and voice. The site suggests uses from roleplay partner and late-night friend to study buddy and co-writer.
• More than text. Voice messages, live video calls, selfies and short video selfies. Kins can talk to each other in group chats, and a beta called Rooms brings friends and their Kins into one conversation.
• Memory. Its docs describe layers: the backstory and key memories you write, a searchable long-term memory, journal entries, and more for subscribers.
• Who it is for. Adults only. Its age-verification page says the terms require users to be 18 or over from day one, and describes how it checks.
• What it allows. Its moderation guidelines say adult roleplay and dark fiction are allowed, that there is no filter on the model itself, and that it scans recent messages for three things: imminent self-harm, imminent harm to others, and sexual content involving minors.
• Apps and cost. Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, and the web, on one account. It is a subscription. Its docs describe a short free preview for new accounts.

Why people look elsewhere

• You want the chats on your own device. Kindroid's privacy policy says chats and generated media are kept until you delete the Kin or your account. They are encrypted at rest and in transit, and the policy says plainly that it is not end-to-end encrypted. If you would rather your adult chats never sat on anyone's server, you need a different design.
• You only ever type. If you never call your Kin or ask for a selfie, you use a small part of a product built around a face and a voice.
• You want a cast, not a companion. A Kin is built to be one ongoing person who knows you. Some people want a story instead: a setting, a plot and five characters, rewritten when the story turns.
• You want to own the model. The pages we read do not mention running Kindroid's model yourself. Open weights, or a model on your own computer, are the routes where nobody can change it under you.

The options side by side

Other companion apps

Nomi is the closest in kind. Its site calls it an AI companion with memory, for a friend, a partner or a mentor. It describes short, medium and long-term memory, group chats, voice messages and hands-free calls, and selfies of what your Nomi is doing. Its site says chats are unfiltered and uncensored, and its wiki says Nomi is 18+. Nomi AI alternatives looks at it in more detail.

Replika calls itself an AI friend to do life with. You have a Rep that remembers what matters, takes your calls and sends selfies. There are apps for iPhone and Android. Replika alternatives covers it.

SillyTavern with a model

SillyTavern's docs call it a locally installed interface for power users. It brings no model of its own. You connect it to a program on your own computer, such as KoboldCpp or Ollama, or to a cloud API. It has character cards, World Info for lore and group chats, and extensions for images and text-to-speech.

With a local model, nothing leaves your machine and no company can change your companion. The costs are a strong graphics card and an afternoon of set-up. Open models for roleplay has the steps.

Where Hemmingway Unlocked fits

Hemmingway Unlocked is the adults-only side of Hemmingway, at wise.hemmingway.io. It asks you to confirm you are 18 or over, shows its rules, then asks you to sign in.

• What it writes. Sex between adults, explicit and in full. Dark and violent fiction. Roleplay where you set the scene and it plays its part, and ordinary chat. It does not stop a scene to lecture.
• What it never writes. Anything sexual involving anyone under 18 (or an adult playing someone under 18), a real person, animals, family, or anyone who does not want it. No help hurting a real person, no weapons, no making drugs, no help with self-harm. The full list is in our terms, and every answer has a Report button.
• Where chats live. In your browser, on your device. They are not saved on our servers and never used for training. Each message passes through our servers to be answered and is not kept. The cost is real: no sync between devices, and clearing your browser data deletes them.
• Cost. Free to try, no card. After that, memberships from $9 a month, through Patreon or in USDC on Base. The Unlocked page has the plans.
• Open weights. The model is an adapter on Hemmingway-1, published at Hugging Face under CC BY-NC 4.0. Running it needs a strong GPU set-up. Run Hemmingway Unlocked locally explains it.
• An API. OpenAI-compatible, at https://wise.hemmingway.io/v1, for members. It works in SillyTavern. Hemmingway Unlocked's API has the set-up.

Open Hemmingway UnlockedTry Hemmingway

You bring your Kin with you in words. Open a new chat and describe them in your first message, like this:

You play Mara, 34, a ferry engineer with a slow laugh. I am Jon, 36. We met two summers ago on her night crossing, and we have been together since. Talk to me the way she would after a long shift: short messages, real questions about my day. You are an AI playing Mara, and if I ask, say so.

Where it does not fit

• You want to hear them. Unlocked has no voice, no calls and no video. Stay with a companion app.
• You want to see them. It makes no images and has no avatar. Kindroid, Nomi and Replika all describe selfies.
• You want them to remember you for months. Unlocked has no companion memory, no journal and no learned notes about you. A chat keeps its own history on your device, and that is all. A companion app does this.
• You want a phone app. There is no app-store app. It runs in your phone's browser. Kindroid, Nomi and Replika all have apps.
• You want a ready-made character. There is no library and no character builder. You write the character, or let the AI roleplay generator draft an opening. A character site has characters made by others.

How to choose

1. You mostly type, and want adult roleplay kept on your own device. Hemmingway Unlocked.
2. The calls, selfies and memory are why you came. Nomi or Replika.
3. You want a companion nobody can change, on your own machine. SillyTavern with a local model.
4. You want your own front end and a model you pick. SillyTavern with an API.

Common questions

Can I move my Kin to another app?

Not as a working Kin. What carries over is the description. Kindroid's docs say you can view, export and delete your data. Copy the backstory, the key memories and the things you two have been through, and give them to the new app as the first message. Say the character is an adult.

Is there a Kindroid alternative with voice calls?

Yes. Nomi's site describes voice messages and hands-free calls, and Replika's says you can call your Rep. Hemmingway Unlocked has no voice at all.

Does Kindroid allow adult roleplay?

Its moderation guidelines say adult roleplay and dark fiction are allowed for its adult users. They name three things it acts on: imminent self-harm, imminent harm to others, and sexual content involving minors.

Is there a Kindroid alternative I can run myself?

Yes. Hemmingway Unlocked's model has open weights, so you can download it and run it yourself, though at 27B it needs a strong GPU set-up. SillyTavern with an open model on your own computer is the other route, and nothing in it leaves your machine.