Friend’s Talking Pendant Gives OpenAI’s Screenless Future a Voice
Screenless devices seem to be the next frontier in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware. There have been rumors that OpenAI’s first device might be a screenless speaker, but nothing concrete has come out. Bloomberg reported in July that the device OpenAI is developing with Jony Ive’s hardware startup, io, will be a screen-free smart speaker built to anticipate a user’s needs and function as a humanlike companion. This week, a much smaller company may have offered the first real preview of what that kind of AI companion is like to use.
Friend, the AI pendant startup founded by Avi Schiffmann, relaunched its device on Thursday (July 30) with a feature it never had before: a voice. The original $99 pendant could only respond through text messages sent to a companion app. Friend 2.0, priced at $249, adds a built-in speaker so the device can talk back directly, TechCrunch reported Thursday. A $10 monthly subscription is now required for the pendant to retain memory of conversations beyond 30 days, Engadget reported. Without the subscription, Friend forgets what it discussed with its owner roughly a month after the conversation happened.
Voice Changes What an AI Companion Actually Is
The shift from text to speech is not a minor feature update. A pendant that types out responses in an app is something a user checks. A pendant that talks back out loud is something a user has an ongoing conversation with, in public, in front of other people, whether they intended to or not. Schiffmann described the device’s purpose in a recent post on X, distancing it explicitly from both productivity tools and romantic companionship. “I am interested in this kind of relationship in attempting to offer, some kind of confidant, friend, God, not really sure what it is,” Schiffmann said, according to TechCrunch.
That ambiguity is precisely the territory OpenAI’s device is reportedly trying to occupy. Bloomberg described the OpenAI device as designed to become more personalized over time, learning a user’s habits and anticipating needs rather than simply answering direct requests, the same functional description Friend uses for its own randomized personality and persistent memory. Neither device is pitched as an assistant in the Siri or Alexa sense
Friend’s Reception So Far Is a Lesson in What to Expect
Friend’s first launch a year ago drew significant attention, not all of it positive. The company’s original marketing campaign, which cost more than $1 million to run in New York’s subway system alone according to Schiffmann’s own account, sparked public debate and some vandalism from commuters uneasy about a product built around an always-listening pendant, TechCrunch reported. The reaction has stuck with the brand. Sharply raising the price to $249 while adding a required subscription for basic memory retention invites more scrutiny, and voice interaction adds a new wrinkle: a pendant that silently texts is private, while one that audibly replies is not, The Next Web noted.
Friend isn’t the only company that has tested this category. Humane’s AI Pin, a screenless wearable positioned as a smartphone alternative, wound down within a year of launch after sales came in below expectations. Friend, whatever comes of it commercially, is currently the only company testing that experience in the real world ahead of OpenAI
