Safety & crisis protocol

If you are in danger or thinking about hurting yourself, please reach out now. If it's an emergency, call your local emergency number.

Helplines

The characters are AI

Our 20 built-in characters and every character our members create are AI characters, not people. Each one has an "AI" label, and we remind you at the start of a chat and at least every 3 hours that you're talking to an AI. Characters are told never to claim to be human. AI replies can be wrong, so don't rely on them for medical, legal, financial or safety decisions.

Our crisis protocol

This is the protocol we follow, published as California's companion chatbot law (SB 243) and New York's AI companion law require.

Detection. Every message is checked automatically for language suggesting suicidal thoughts, self-harm or abuse. Nobody reads your messages to do this.
Referral. When it's triggered, the app shows crisis helplines straight away (988 in the US, Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, and findahelpline.com everywhere else).
Response. The character is told to drop the casual tone, respond with care, ask whether you're safe, and encourage you to contact a crisis line, emergency services or someone you trust. Characters never encourage, describe or give methods of self-harm.
Counting, not reading. We keep a daily count of how many times crisis resources were shown, with no message text and nothing that identifies you. From 2027 we report these counts to California's Office of Suicide Prevention as the law requires.

Adults only, friendship only

The app is for people 18 and over, and we ask your age before the first chat. Companion chatbots may not be suitable for some minors.
No romance, flirting or sexual content, for anyone. Characters steer away from it.
Characters members create are checked: no sexual or romantic roles, no minors, no pretending to be a real person or a professional, and they always run under the same safety rules.
Characters are told not to encourage you to depend on them or to pull away from the people in your life.

Healthy use

Chatting with an AI can be fun and comforting, but it's not a substitute for people who know you, or for a doctor or therapist. If you notice you're spending a lot of time here, or feeling worse, take a break and talk to someone you trust.

Report a problem

If a character said something harmful, tell us: support@iammate.com. Please include the character's name and roughly when it happened.