Robot model
Friend
Friend is an always-listening wearable AI companion pendant (a necklace) made by the startup Friend, founded by Avi Schiffmann. Unlike the productivity recorders in this cohort, it is an emotional-companion device that texts the wearer. It is shipping to the US, Canada, and EU at $129 (it launched as a $99 preorder in 2024). A roughly $1M New York subway advertising campaign in late 2025 became a flashpoint for public backlash against consumer AI. Friend raised about $2.5M at a $50M valuation (led by Caffeinated Capital, with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas as an individual angel); the friend.com domain was purchased for about $1.8M. The registry records it at commercial maturity, correcting the dispatch's preliminary research/promised label: it is verifiably shipping.
Friend is a wearable robot built by
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /models/friend-pendant.md
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/models/97d9fa67-9355-44c9-9b07-5bff221ce3b9
- Data documentation: /data
- Form factor
- wearable
- Maturity stage
- commercial
- Lifecycle
- active
- Deployments
- 0
- ID
97d9fa67-9355-44c9-9b07-5bff221ce3b9
Specs
- notes
- [object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
- pricing
- $99 preorder (2024) -> $129 current retail; one-time, no subscription at launch
- function
- always-listening AI companion that texts the wearer (emotional companionship, NOT productivity)
- formFactor
- wearable AI companion pendant (necklace)
Supply chain
No verified supply relationships on file. Supply-chain coverage is being added across the registry; check back as the seed populates this model’s suppliers.
Suppliers appear here when verified with at least two strong sources (maker-official / IR / regulatory / standards-body / verified tier-2). Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history.
Sources (6)
- https://friend.com/?page=hardware
- https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/30/friend-is-an-ai-companion-backed-by-founders-of-solana-perplexity-and-zfellows/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_(product)
- https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/friend-is-a-dollar99-ai-necklace-that-wants-to-help-you-remake-the-movie-her
- https://decrypt.co/242629/friend-necklace-avi-schiffmann
- https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/16/tech/friend-ai-device-backlash-ceo-avi-schiffmann
Common questions
- What is Friend?
- Friend is an always-listening wearable AI companion pendant (a necklace) made by the startup Friend, founded by Avi Schiffmann. Unlike the productivity recorders in this cohort, it is an emotional-companion device that texts the wearer. It is shipping to the US, Canada, and EU at $129 (it launched as a $99 preorder in 2024). A roughly $1M New York subway advertising campaign in late 2025 became a flashpoint for public backlash against consumer AI. Friend raised about $2.5M at a $50M valuation (led by Caffeinated Capital, with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas as an individual angel); the friend.com domain was purchased for about $1.8M. The registry records it at commercial maturity, correcting the dispatch's preliminary research/promised label: it is verifiably shipping.
- Who makes Friend?
- Friend is made by Friend, based in San Francisco, California, USA, founded in 2024.
- Where is Friend deployed?
- No verified deployments of Friend are currently on the DEPLOY registry. DEPLOY records deployments only when verified at a named site with a primary source; absence may reflect pre-deployment, research, or manufacturer-internal use.
- What is Friend's maturity stage?
- Friend is at the commercial stage on the DEPLOY maturity ladder (research, prototype, pilot, commercial, production). Commercial stage means production-grade deployments are operating at named customer sites.