YanMateLeaving Replika without losing your companion
What you can take out of Replika before you go — recent chats, the Memory tab, the diary — and how to rebuild your companion somewhere else.
· 8 min read
Guides
Longer pieces on getting something real out of AI characters — how they remember, how to write one worth talking to, and how to tell a companion that is good company from one that is built to keep you.
Ten YanMate characters our editors would start with
Our own picks from the YanMate cast, and why. Ten characters that each show you something different, with a first thing to say to each of them.
· 8 min read
Character card V2 vs V3: what actually changed
V3 is V2 plus fields V2 cannot hold. What those fields are, what a dual-chunk PNG actually does, and what you lose if you export back to V2.
· 7 min read
Does Character.AI train on your chats?
Character.AI says it trains on shared chat content, with an EEA/UK opt-out. What Replika, Nomi, Kindroid, SillyTavern and YanMate publish, sourced 19 Sep 2026.
· 8 min read
How to write a character card greeting (6 examples)
How to write a character-card first message, with six annotated examples from downloadable V3 templates and the 300-token budget they sit inside.
· 9 min read
Lorebook vs memory: where each fact belongs
A lorebook holds the world; memory holds facts about you. How to decide where a fact belongs, what it costs in tokens, and what goes wrong when they mix.
· 8 min read
How AI companion memory works, and why it goes wrong
What an AI companion actually remembers, why it gets facts about you wrong, and how reading and editing its memory keeps a character accurate.
· 8 min read
How to write an AI character people want to talk to
A practical guide to persona, scenario, greeting and example dialogue, with before-and-after examples and the mistakes that flatten a character.
· 8 min read
Leaving Character.AI without losing your characters
How to get your data out of Character.AI, read what the export holds, turn characters into portable cards, and pick somewhere sensible to go next.
· 9 min read
Practising a language by talking to AI characters
A practical routine for practising a language with AI characters: setting one up to correct you, short daily sessions, speaking aloud, and the limits.
· 9 min read
Rehearsing a difficult conversation with an AI character
How to use AI role-play to practise a conversation you are dreading, from asking for a raise to breaking bad news, and where rehearsal stops helping.
· 8 min read
Signs an AI companion is built to hook you
How to spot the guilt, jealousy, loss-framing and paywall tricks that keep you in a companion app, and what a healthier design looks like instead.
· 8 min read