HomeUpdatesReplika’s founder launches Wabi 2.0, a group-chat AI assistant

NEWS · Published 2026-10-24

Replika’s founder launches Wabi 2.0, a group-chat AI assistant

A couple on a sofa in the evening looking at one phone together while he points at the screen

Eugenia Kuyda, who founded the AI companion app Replika, launched Wabi 2.0 for everyone on October 19, 2026. It is a free AI assistant that works like a messenger: you get separate chat threads for different parts of your life, and you can share a thread with a partner, friends or family as a group chat (TechCrunch). Wabi is not a companion app. Kuyda pitches it as a way to use AI together with the people in your life.

What happened

Kuyda left as Replika’s CEO last year and founded Wabi, which raised a $20 million pre-seed round. Wabi first launched as a social platform for making and sharing small apps with prompts. On Monday, October 19, she launched Wabi 2.0 for all, which TechCrunch calls something of a pivot (TechCrunch). The key facts:

  • Threads, not one long chat. You keep several threads for different tasks and goals, such as health or family. Kuyda says single-thread assistants “get worse over time because it’s just so much context in one endless conversation.”
  • It builds small apps for you. Once you connect your email, Wabi starts a set of threads and builds apps inside them, like a weight-loss tracker in a health thread or nearby children’s events in a family thread. You can ask for more.
  • Shared threads are group chats. In Kuyda’s thread with her boyfriend, apps along the top track live music, ask a daily question about their relationship, list restaurants and suggest books they read together. Her family thread tracks her daughter’s schedule and quizzes her on Japanese.
  • Free for now. Wabi has not settled on a business model and is in talks to raise more money.

The launch comes 12 years to the day after Kuyda pitched IO, a chatbot concierge for booking restaurants and trips, at TechCrunch Disrupt. IO came from her startup Luka, which later became Replika (TechCrunch).

Three official Wabi App Store screenshots: the Wabi home screen with app tiles, a shared thread planning dinner in Mexico City, and a school app appearing in a thread
Wabi’s home screen, a shared “Plan it together” thread and an app that appears when needed. Image: official Wabi App Store screenshots, © Wabi, Inc., shown to illustrate the app (App Store listing).

Why Replika’s founder built a group chat

Kuyda says Replika and Wabi share a goal: helping people feel less alone. “My previous company Replika worked on AI that will make people feel … less lonely,” she told TechCrunch. “To a degree, that is [in Wabi] as well. AI can bring people together, even when it comes to just helping you spend time better together in real life” (TechCrunch).

The difference is who sits in the chat. Replika is one person talking to one AI friend. Wabi puts the AI in a chat with other people. Kuyda says agentic apps today are “just [conversations] between you and the agent”, and that “I don’t think anyone has yet cracked multiplayer.” She sees Wabi competing with personal assistants such as Muse and Instinct, not with Replika.

That split is useful if you are choosing an app. An assistant helps you and your people get things done. A companion is someone to talk to. If what you want is the second, Duple is built for that on iPhone: you design one or more companions, choose how they look and who they are, and they remember your conversations and send selfies. It is text chat, with no live voice.

A woman checking her phone at a kitchen counter on a school morning while a child eats breakfast
A family thread is one way Kuyda uses Wabi, for things like a child’s schedule. Illustration: an AI-generated image of fictional people, not people using Wabi.

Privacy: what Wabi can see

Wabi works best when you connect your email, and you can share calendar or even bank details inside a chat, so it is worth knowing how access works. Kuyda says access is scoped to each chat, so your partner can ask Wabi in your shared chat “Is Eugenia free next Thursday?”, and everyone in a chat can see when someone’s personal information is requested (TechCrunch).

  • SOC 2. Wabi is SOC 2 compliant, meaning its data security controls have been independently audited.
  • Cloud only. Wabi runs entirely in the cloud, and most data is stored in the US, Kuyda said.
  • Rated 13+. Wabi’s App Store listing is rated 13+, is free, and lists no in-app purchases when we checked on October 24, 2026 (App Store listing).
Three official Wabi App Store screenshots: Wabi renegotiating a cable bill, a group chat about adopting a pet, and a dinner plan with a recipe card
Wabi’s listing shows it handling a bill, a shared pet chat and dinner plans. Image: official Wabi App Store screenshots, © Wabi, Inc., shown to illustrate the app (App Store listing).

What it means for you

  • If you use Replika, nothing changes. Wabi is a separate company and app, and Replika keeps running.
  • If you want help with plans, Wabi is free to try on iPhone now. Think about which accounts you connect before you share a thread with others.
  • If you want a companion, Wabi is not one. Our Replika alternatives guide compares companion apps on memory, voice, price and age rating, and our Replika profile covers the app itself.

If a companion you design yourself is what you are after, Duple is one option on iPhone. You can build one companion or several, with long-term memory, and they send generated selfies and photos. It is free to start with Duple Lite, and Duple Plus costs $6.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year, per its App Store listing. Duple is text chat only, with no live voice.

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