Friend is back with a new version of its AI pendant, and the most important change is simple: it can now talk back out loud. The second iteration of the necklace keeps the basic pitch of an AI companion that stays with the user, but shifts the interaction away from text-only replies.
The device remains controversial. Its founder, Avi Schiffmann, appears to understand that clearly, and the company’s marketing has leaned into the discomfort around loneliness, companionship, and artificial intelligence.
A speaker changes the product
The first Friend pendant was described as an always-listening AI wearable that answered through text message. The new version adds a speaker on the back, allowing the device to deliver spoken responses.
That hardware change also alters the pendant itself. The underside is bulkier than before because of the speaker, while the device keeps the round pendant form that hangs from a cord around the user’s neck.
The AI system has been upgraded as well. According to the source article, the new Friend runs OpenAI’s latest models. The company announced the device on Thursday through its new X handle.
The result is a product that is no longer only a wearable prompt for a phone conversation. By speaking aloud, Friend becomes more present in the room, and potentially more noticeable to anyone nearby. That makes the device’s companion role more direct, but it may also intensify the reaction from people already uneasy about AI wearables.
The new Friend arrives with less user control
Friend’s core idea is still a digital companion that users can talk to for long conversations. The second version adds a twist: each pendant ships with a random voice and personality already set.
Users cannot change the voice or the name. That means buying the device also means accepting the particular Friend assigned to that unit.
That design choice is central to how the product wants to feel. A changeable assistant can be customized into a tool. A fixed voice and personality pushes the pendant closer to a character, or at least to something the company wants users to treat as more than software settings.
The product details now include:
- A built-in speaker for spoken replies.
- A bulkier underside than the earlier version.
- OpenAI’s latest models.
- A random voice and personality on each pendant.
- No option for users to change the voice or name.
Those choices make Friend more distinctive, but they also narrow the buyer’s control. For a device built around conversation and companionship, that limitation is not a minor interface detail. It is part of the experience.
Pricing, memory, and the push to scale
The new Friend costs $249. That is a clear increase from the original version’s $129 price.
The device is available through Friend.com, a domain Schiffmann paid $1.8 million for. The company also offers an optional $10 monthly subscription that lets the AI remember conversations for longer than 30 days.
Memory is a major part of the pitch for an AI companion. A device that forgets after a shorter window may feel less continuous, while longer memory can make the relationship with the product feel more persistent. The source does not provide technical detail on how that memory works, but the business model is straightforward: longer recall is part of the paid layer.
Schiffmann says the first run of 5,000 pendants sold. For the second version, he wants to sell 50,000. That is a much larger target, and it means Friend has to reach beyond the audience willing to buy an unusual AI necklace simply because it is strange or provocative.
The product may not be available in the European Union. Schiffmann says he will likely pull it from the EU because meeting the data privacy rules set by the General Data Protection Regulation makes it too expensive to sell there.
Controversy remains part of the strategy
Schiffmann first drew headlines in 2020 as a 17-year-old who built a website to track Covid-19 cases during the pandemic. Now 24, he is more widely associated with Friend and with the strong reaction the product has produced.
The marketing around Friend has been as visible as the pendant itself. The company placed ads across New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago in 2025, and in Paris in early 2026. Those ads drew pushback over AI usage, including graffiti and criticism that they devalued humanity.
Schiffmann appears to frame that reaction as part of the project rather than a problem outside it. He told WIRED, “Something like Friend is very dystopian in people’s minds and very futuristic,” then added, “But we’re presenting it in the most analog way possible.”
That analog theme shows up elsewhere in the source article. Schiffmann says he does not have an internet connection in his home. He listens to music on a record player. He is also shooting a documentary about himself on Kodak Ektachrome.
After the ad campaign peaked, Friend released four user videos showing customers. The videos focused on people dealing with depression or loneliness, and Schiffmann said the intention was to show real users of the device.
His explanation for that focus was blunt: “That’s life, isn’t it?” He also said he was more interested in how Friend affects people in “random Appalachian towns or whatever” than in “slight productivity gains for finance people in New York.”
A product, a persona, and a difficult sell
Friend sits in an unusual position. It is a consumer device with a price, a subscription, a sales goal, and an accessories collection that Schiffmann says will arrive later this year. It is also wrapped in a deliberately provocative cultural presentation.
Schiffmann has acknowledged the self-centered nature of the project. “The whole thing is supposed to be me, in a way, and how I feel,” he said. “And it’s encapsulated into a product.”
That may help explain why the company’s videos and ads often feel less like conventional technology marketing. They show people alone or with another person, asking the pendant intimate questions such as whether they will ever get married or whether their creative work is any good.
The challenge is whether that approach can attract the broader buyers Schiffmann wants. He says he understands the impression that Friend users are odd, but hopes the product can become more appealing to “normal people.”
The second Friend pendant is therefore more than a hardware update. The speaker makes it more conversational, the fixed personality makes it harder to treat as a blank tool, and the higher price makes the company’s ambitions clearer. What remains unresolved is whether people will see a speaking AI necklace as companionship, performance, or simply a product asking for too much emotional space.