AI companions on iOS and Android: what the stores allow

Search the App Store for an AI girlfriend and you will find apps. Look at the platforms that make up this market, though, and most of them are not apps at all. They are websites, and they stay websites for a reason.

This guide explains why. Two forces push adult AI companions out of the stores: buying inside an app costs more than buying on the web, and the stores’ content rules leave no room for the product most of these platforms sell. We read the App Store Review Guidelines and Google Play’s policies in October 2026, and the documents of the nineteen platforms in our rankings between 14 and 21 August 2026. The one platform in our corpus that sells through both channels documents the price gap itself, and it is the clearest evidence we have.

Where the nineteen actually live

Of the nineteen platforms we rank, one documents apps for iOS and Android. Seven describe themselves, in their own pages, as browser or web services. For the other eleven, our reviews were carried out on the web and record no official app.

From the platform documents and account sessions behind our nineteen reviews, between 14 and 21 August 2026. “No official app documented” means our review does not record one; we did not search the App Store or Google Play for each platform, and a listing may exist. Terms change regularly — check the platform before you pay.

So the honest answer to “is there an iPhone app?” is: for one of the nineteen, yes; for the rest, the product is a website you open in your phone’s browser. That is not an oversight on their part. The next three sections explain the constraint.

Buying in the app costs more, and one platform says so

Both stores take a commission on digital purchases made inside an app, and Apple’s guidelines leave little choice about using its system: an app that unlocks features or content — “subscriptions, in-game currencies… access to premium content” — must use in-app purchase. Google Play’s payments policy requires its own billing system in the same way. Platforms that sell through the store pass the commission on, or absorb it.

Kindroid passed it on, and in August published both price lists side by side, attributing the difference to the stores’ processing fees. Since October it shows prices only at checkout, while still saying that “buying on the web is usually cheaper than through the App Store or Google Play”. These are the totals it documented on 21 August 2026:

Totals in US dollars as published in Kindroid’s subscription and in-app purchase guides, captured on 21 August 2026. Differences are our calculation, rounded to the nearest percent. Kindroid notes that regional pricing applies; tax and local checkout were not tested. Kindroid no longer publishes these prices; the Kindroid review cites them from an archived copy.

The gap compounds. A subscriber on the MAX tier pays Standard, Ultra and MAX together: $98.97 a month on the web, $113.97 through a store — $15 a month, every month, for the same account. The pattern holds on every line: the same purchase costs between 13% and 25% more in the app.

Both stores have had to loosen these rules in some countries: Google Play allows alternative billing in eligible regions, and Apple now lets apps on its US storefront link out to a web checkout (guideline 3.1.1). The fees attached are still moving, so we do not quote them here. What has not moved is the result for the buyer: where a platform sells in both places, the web is the cheaper door.

What the stores refuse

Price explains why a platform might prefer the web. Content rules explain why most of them have no choice.

• Apple rejects “overtly sexual or pornographic material” (guideline 1.1.4). Apps built on user-generated content can show “incidental” mature content only if it comes from a web service, is hidden by default, and is switched on by the user on the developer’s website — and apps “used primarily for pornographic content” do not belong on the store at all (guideline 1.2).
• Google Play does not allow “apps that contain or promote sexual content or profanity, including pornography” (Inappropriate Content policy), including illustrations and animations. Its separate policy on AI-generated content requires apps to prevent the generation of restricted content and to let users report offensive output without leaving the app.

Read those rules against what this market sells. Most of the nineteen are adults-only services whose main offer is explicit chat and generated images or video, not an incidental extra. That cannot ship as a store app. A platform has two options: publish a filtered version in the store and keep the full product on the web, or stay on the web entirely.

Kindroid is the case of the first option. In July its documentation said web users could select an NSFW video engine, while the app-store versions applied additional filters; the October version says only that generated media may be checked against the content rules that apply where you use Kindroid. The app and the website carry the same name and the same account, but not the same product. The other eighteen took the second option, or at least our reviews document no other.

This is why web-only is a constraint before it is a choice. It also has a consequence for you: when a review describes an adult platform’s features, it describes the web version. An app that carries the same name may not do the same things.

What changes when you pay through a store

If you do subscribe inside an app, three things move with the payment.

• Cancelling happens in the store. A subscription bought through iOS or Android is cancelled in the store’s subscription settings (Apple, Google Play), not on the website. Kindroid documents exactly this split. Deleting the app cancels nothing — how to cancel covers every route.
• Refunds go through the store. Kindroid says mobile subscription refunds are handled by the applicable app store, and that its own in-app purchases are non-refundable. The platform’s support cannot refund what the store billed — why refunds are refused explains the rest.
• The charge carries the store’s name. Your bank statement shows Apple or Google, not the platform, and the purchase sits in your store account’s history. For some readers that is the point of buying in the app; on the web, what appears on your statement depends on each platform’s billing descriptor, which who you are actually paying compares.

One practical trap follows: a subscription bought in the store and another bought on the web are two subscriptions. Switching to the cheaper web price means cancelling in the store first, then subscribing on the web — not the reverse, and not one without the other.

Using a web-only companion on your phone

A web platform works in your phone’s browser like any site: you sign in, and the account, the chats and the credits are the same as on a computer. Two steps make it feel closer to an app.

• On an iPhone, open the site in Safari, tap the Share button, then “Add to Home Screen”. The site gets an icon and opens on its own.
• On Android, open the site in Chrome, open the menu, then “Add to Home screen” — some sites offer “Install app” instead.

We have not tested this platform by platform: how well each site behaves full-screen on a phone, and whether its notifications work there, varies and is not covered by our reviews. Two discretion points are worth knowing before you add the icon. A home-screen icon carries the site’s name and logo, on a screen other people see. And the browser keeps a history unless you use a private tab — which, on most sites, also means signing in again each time. What happens to your messages once they are typed is a separate question, answered in who can read what you type.

Apps that borrow a platform’s name

When a well-known web platform has no app, the store search for its name still returns results. We have not audited the stores for look-alikes, so we name none. The check is simple and works for any app: compare the developer name on the store listing with the company that operates the platform. Every review we publish names that company, and who you are actually paying lists them side by side. If the two do not match, the app is not the platform you read about, and nothing in our review applies to it.

What this changes before you pay

The channel is part of the price. The same plan can cost two different amounts depending on where you tap “subscribe”. Before paying in an app, open the platform’s website and compare. Our checklist before you pay covers the other checks.

Read the review for the version you will use. On an adult platform with a store app, the app may be filtered and the review describes the web. If the app is what you want, its features are the ones to check, not ours.

Pick the platform first, the device second. Since nearly every platform runs in a phone’s browser, the device does not narrow the choice much. The rankings compare the nineteen on nine criteria, and how we test AI companions explains the labels used on this page — documented, tested, not tested.

Sources

Store rules checked on 23 October 2026. Platform documents and Kindroid’s prices are quoted from our reviews, which link to them.

• App Store Review Guidelines — 1.1.4 (overtly sexual or pornographic material), 1.2 (user-generated content, incidental mature content) and 3.1.1 (in-app purchase, the US storefront exception); last updated 16 October 2026.
• Google Play: Inappropriate Content — sexual content and profanity, including illustrations and animations.
• Google Play: AI-Generated Content — preventing restricted content and in-app reporting.
• Google Play: Payments — Google Play’s billing system, and alternative billing in eligible regions.
• Apple: cancel a subscription and Google Play: cancel a subscription — store subscriptions are cancelled in the store.

⚠ This guide reads published documents and contains no affiliate links in its text. The reviews it links to do: if you click through and subscribe, AI Companion Atlas may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Platform documents were read between 14 and 21 August 2026, Kindroid’s prices were captured on 21 August 2026, and the App Store and Google Play rules were read in October 2026. Store rules and fees change, and so do platform prices — check both before you pay. The sidebar banner is a paid advertisement: an affiliate link to LiveJasmin, a live webcam service this page does not rate.