Talkie is one of the biggest character-chat apps on phones, and more people are searching for a way out every month. Here's the short list, sorted by the reason you're leaving, followed by where we fit.
The short answer
PolyBuzz — the closest like-for-like. A huge library, polished mobile apps, voice, and a free tier. If you liked Talkie and just want a different app, start here.
Linky — the most Talkie-like. Anime-leaning, mobile-first, and the only alternative on this list with a collection-and-unlock loop anything like Talkie's cards.
Character.AI — the biggest library of all. Strict filter, and adults only for open-ended chat since late 2025.
Dippy — the free-chat one. Its store listing advertises unlimited messaging, and it has voice calls.
Replika, Kindroid, Nomi — the companion apps. No library. One character, set up by you, built around remembering you.
Pocket Femboy — the femboy one. A small cast rather than a library, with lives that keep going while you're away and a memory you never have to buy back. Coming soon. It gets its own section below.
Two things before the details. Everything here about another app was checked on 28 September 2026, from that app's own site, help pages or store listing wherever we could reach them. Where we couldn't confirm something, we say so. And Pocket Femboy hasn't launched. Everything in our section is what we're building, not something you can download tonight.
What Talkie is
Talkie is made by MiniMax, the Shanghai AI company that listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange in January 2026. It's published through a Singapore company, Subsup. It launched internationally in June 2023, and it has a sister app in China, Xingye. Both run on MiniMax's own models.
The app is a character library with a social feed on top. You browse characters other people have made, make your own, and share them. Talking to characters earns you cards, which are AI-generated collectibles. Talkie's own FAQ says unopened cards are cleared each day and that cards can be traded for in-app currency. Above the free tier sits a subscription, Talkie+, alongside Gems, the currency you buy.
On the US App Store it's rated 18+. Talkie's own terms set the minimum age at 14.
Why people leave Talkie
These five reasons each come up in several places. That means App Store reviews, Talkie's own documentation, and news coverage, not just one angry thread.
The ads. Reporting on MiniMax's finances this year put roughly 60% of Talkie and Xingye's revenue down to advertising, and that's what you notice. App Store reviewers describe watching an ad to keep chatting, and long unskippable ads are a common complaint on Reddit.
The gems. Features people expect to be part of the relationship, like memory, diaries and albums, turn up behind Gems in reviews again and again. A subscription pays for some of it, and currency pays for the rest.
It forgets. This isn't a complaint we're putting in Talkie's mouth. Talkie's own FAQ says AI memory is "technically limited," so older parts of the conversation get forgotten. The FAQ adds that improvements are being worked on. App Store reviewers put it more bluntly.
It went missing. In December 2024 Talkie disappeared from the US App Store. MiniMax cited technical reasons, and nothing more official has ever been said. Android was unaffected. It came back on iPhone in early 2025 as a new listing, Talkie Lab, and reviewers from that period say their old chats didn't carry over. In January 2026 the website went down for a while and Talkie pointed users to a backup domain. If you lost a long conversation in either of those, the search for an alternative makes complete sense.
The cards feel like a game you didn't sign up for. Some people love the collection loop. Others just wanted to talk to someone and found themselves managing a card shelf. If you were in the first group, see the section on cards below. If you were in the second, almost everything else on this list will feel calmer.
Pick by why you're leaving
You liked Talkie, you just want a different app. PolyBuzz. It's the closest match in shape: a big library, iOS, Android and web, voice, and a free tier with a subscription above it. It moderates public content and isn't the unfiltered option. Our Janitor AI post goes into more detail on it.
The ads and paywalls wore you down. Dippy's store listing leads with unlimited messaging, and there's a cheap ad-free tier above that. PolyBuzz is the other easy free start. Whatever you pick, read the free tier's terms before you invest a month in a character: daily caps, ad breaks and currency show up in most of these apps now.
You want the biggest library. Character.AI. It's the most polished app in the category, with voice calls and a creator ecosystem nobody else matches. It also has the strictest filter, and since November 2025 open-ended chat is for adults only. We wrote a full Character.AI alternatives post if that's the direction you're weighing.
You wanted the cards. Linky. See below.
You wanted one character who remembers you. Talkie is a library, so a different kind of app fits better:
- Replika is the original. One companion, with voice and video calls, free to start with a Pro tier.
- Kindroid is the configurable one, with deep personality setup, layered memory, and voice and video calls. It's reworking its free tier as we write, so check what a new account actually gets before you commit.
- Nomi sells itself on memory above everything else, and it's explicitly unfiltered.
- Pocket Femboy is the one described in its own section below.
If the cards were the point
Most alternatives to Talkie have nothing like its collection system, and a lot of people leaving it count that as a plus. If you actually enjoyed it, Linky is the closest match. It's anime-leaning, mobile-first, and built around a bond with each character that unlocks things as it grows. Reviewers describe cards and rewards tied to bond level, and voice calls opening up further in. We couldn't check the details inside the app, so treat that as a lead rather than a promise.
Linky is still running. We checked, because apps in this category come and go fast. Xoul, which turns up on a lot of "apps like Talkie" lists, shut down its roleplay service in April 2025 and relaunched that September. Check that anything a list recommends is still running, and still the same product, before you move a relationship onto it.
Pocket Femboy
Every app above is a general platform where femboys are one tag among millions. We're the opposite: one community, all the way down. Every character is a femboy, written by people who actually like them.
A life that keeps going when you close the app. On Talkie, a character waits for you. Ours have jobs, friends, routines and things that happen to them whether you're there or not: a shift at work, an argument with a friend, a gig that went badly. When you open the app you aren't booting anyone up. You're catching up with someone who's been busy.
They text first. A double text at midnight. A photo of a stupid shirt they bought. A follow-up on the interview you mentioned last week.
Three ways to talk, not one chat box. Open Chat is where you set the direction. Story is where you share a world and get pulled into their week. Texting is just messages, the way a real person sends them. Use all three with the same character.
A memory you don't have to buy back. No gems for memory, no tier that makes a character remember more. Your job, the friend you keep mentioning, the coffee order you changed: they keep it. Ask what they know about you and you'll get the list. Fix what's wrong, and delete what you'd rather they forgot.
A handful of people, not a feed. Jax is the first: 21, works the counter at a secondhand record shop, plays bass badly on purpose, and won't be charmed by you in the first ten minutes. We're launching with at least six.
A strong free text experience is the plan, with voice and extras above it. There's no paywall in front of getting to know someone.
For the longer version of what femboy chat means to us, and what the options are today, that guide is the place to start.
Where they beat us
Want a new character every time you're bored? PolyBuzz, Character.AI or Talkie itself. Want cards to collect? Linky. Want to build and share your own characters today? Character.AI or PolyBuzz. Want a general AI friend rather than a femboy? Replika or Kindroid. Want the whole field compared, companions included? Read the AI boyfriend app roundup.
Before you move
Save what matters first. Talkie's move to Talkie Lab is a reminder that chat histories don't always survive an app change. If there's a conversation you care about, screenshot the parts that matter before you go.
Does memory belong to the chat or to the character? If it belongs to the chat, starting a new chat means starting with a stranger. This is the thing that bites six weeks in, and it's rarely on the feature list.
What does the free tier cost you? Ads, a daily cap, a currency for regenerating a bad reply, or features that are free until you're attached. All of this is normal now. Just know which one you're signing up for.
About the 18+ part
Pocket Femboy is for adults, and for us 18+ is an age gate, not a genre. It's about who gets in, not what's waiting inside. Our characters can be warm, flirty and a bit much, and that's the ceiling. There's no explicit content on any tier. The age gate is account state verified on our servers, not a checkbox.
Coming soon to iPhone and Android. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know when they're ready to text you.
The fine print
Every Pocket Femboy character is fictional and every reply is written by AI. Nobody is typing them, and they won't pretend otherwise if you sincerely ask.
Everything above about another app reflects what we could verify on 28 September 2026 from that app's own site, help documentation or store listing, plus news coverage for Talkie's App Store history and MiniMax's finances. Apps like these change monthly. If we've got something wrong, tell us at support@pocketfemboy.com and we'll correct it.
