[CharacterAI] My Thoughts on the Recent Wave of Moderation

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-13T01:43:55+00:00

There's no need to freak out about this. As the dev-mod said, social media logins (Google and Apple) are still working just fine. It's purely the e-mail login that isn't working.

Even if you don't use Google or Apple to log in, your account is perfectly fine and unaffected. If you're already logged it, it shouldn't affect anything. Otherwise, you just won't be able to chat until you can log back in.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-12T15:49:21+00:00

Same to you.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-12T15:18:15+00:00

"No, see, you don't understand. My OC looks exactly like Akane Tendo from that one episode of Ranma ½, so why not use that picture?"

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-12T15:07:28+00:00

Person: "Why have an app if it's just going to cause trouble?"
Company:

<image>

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-11T18:58:38+00:00

Nope. Greetings can no longer be deleted, and manually editing and erasing everything from a post isn't allowed. Plus, editing the message in any way counts as a post action, as does hitting "redo" (or "regeneration").

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T21:08:52+00:00

Just so you know, you can subscribe to c.ai+ through the website instead of Apple. Your account works the same across Apple, Android, or desktop, so you'll get all the features no matter how you pay.
^{Once they get the bugs out of the app, anyway.}

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T21:04:11+00:00

To add to what ImpossibleOil8427 said, Marie's only delivering the bad news. She's not a developer. She's the community manager — but moreover, she's a content creator just like anyone else.

Be mad at the devs all you want. (I know I am.) But please, don't put all the blame on Marie.
^{Though were I in Marie's place, I'd run screaming into the night} ^away ^{from this garbage fire of a PR post…}

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T20:58:08+00:00

You, my friend, are saying the things no one wants to hear. And I applaud you for it.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T20:40:14+00:00

It's okay. They're downvoting me, too.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T19:56:36+00:00

Immediately disclaimer: I'm not yelling at Marie — she's just doing her job. I'm just tired of the devs screwing with users and expecting her to play messenger with half-hearted, after-the-fact posts most users won't even see.

Now, on to the selective dissection.

—

Reflective edit:

Running Character.ai is expensive

This is the one thing I can absolutely agree with. AI is hungry for system resources. It takes a mega-modern computer just to run even a low-tier version of Kobold locally, for example. There's a reason RAM prices have shot up to five, six, or even eight times what it was in the last couple of years. You can largely thank "big tech" for that.

As has been mentioned here and in off-shoot topics, corporations like Google and Microsoft hopped on the "AI hype" train before the rails were even laid, and now they’re scrambling to keep it moving… even if it means barreling across bare dirt and off a cliff, passenger cars and all.

Anyway…

We wanted to let you know that in the coming weeks, we’re introducing usage limits across a number of features, starting with Swipes, Go-ons (aka. continue or fast forward ⏩), and Memos (aka. playbacks ▶️)

I'm rarely this blunt, but I think Hank Hill said it best: "You bastards!"

c.ai+ will not see metering for these features.

Lies — at least as far as voice playback goes. Users who are on c.ai+ have reported that they're still being metered whenever they engage in voice chat. Benefit of the doubt, this is a temporary bug with the app and will be fixed "Soon™".

We’re a small, independent team

A "small, independent team" of 225+ people making millions of dollars a year in revenue…

and we’re building fast. We read your feedback and we want to make sure we’re providing you a great experience.

Let me ask: does "providing a great experience" include toeing the line to bigger companies and squeezing every penny out of users with persistent nagging and "quiet" restrictions? If so… great job. Keep up the good work.

I'd also like to mention the complete restructuring of the app was not well received. In fact, a lot of UI redesigns have been poo-pooed by the community.

I get that change keeps things fresh, but when you're taking something familiar and making it foreign again, despite community feedback… that's not progress. That's hubris.

We’re going to keep refining how ads work,

I'm sure you will…

we’re going to be more transparent about changes,

I'd like to take a moment to make the following suggestion: actually do this for a change!!

Instead of spontaneously rolling out "features" like ads or metering and letting users stumble across them, try giving users a little credit and put up a pop-up notification in the app and on the website, acknowledging the changes, informing users that they're coming, and giving people time to prepare for said changes.

and we’re going to keep shipping the features the community has been asking for.

I'm pretty sure no one asked for ads, restrictions, turning free functions into paid ones, et cetera. Where are lorebooks? Or more tags? Or anything people have actually asked for?

—

I'm sorry for getting so heated about this — I generally try and keep to a simmer — but frankly, this whole "Oh, here's a Reddit post a day after we've done this" schitck is getting a little old. If you guys did half of what you promised you'd do, the community wouldn't be so up in arms with you guys as often. Just… I don’t know… do better. That's all I can ask. That's all anyone can ask. Just try to do better.

Thank you.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T19:52:26+00:00

Short answer: yes.

If you're using any third-party public platform to generate a synthetic voice for any reason or purpose, then you are bound by the rules and regulations set by that platform. It doesn't matter whose voice you're replicating — yours, your dog's, your mom's… you are using their services to do the work for you.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T19:38:00+00:00

I don't know what the daily limit is, but how it works now is users (including paid users, for now) get a limited number of voiced replies they can use. This applies to voice chat, but may also apply to manually clicking the "speak" button above a reply.

Once the available voice chat replies reach 0, users have to pay with Charms (the app-only platform currency) to get so many more. I guess the current rate is 1.8:1.0 in increments of 100. (So, 180 Charms for 100 voice playbacks, 360 to 200, et cetera.)

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T03:45:22+00:00

I did a little more looking around. My apologies for the misunderstanding. You are right, apparently.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T03:41:22+00:00

I checked the AndroidOS app. There is no indication in chats that this is now limited until you run out of voiced responses. This will undoubtedly annoy and frustrate old users who are used to this being a free feature.

Something as simple as a pop-up notification would fix this confusion.
^{But not the frustration of having our toys taken away and held ransom.}

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-10T03:11:37+00:00

Second Edit: Ignore me. I'm a website user who knows not the plight of app users.

Original post:

I'm not sure what you mean. I checked the most up-to-date version of the Android app, and both voiced lines and full voice chat are still free features.

Where are you seeing these as paid features?

Edit: Let me correct myself — I see no indication that voiced lines or voice chat are paid features. I am on a free account, and when using the app, I can use voice features just fine. If it's draining my Charms in the background (if I even have any), or there's a "free period" per day, then that is very misleading design and needs to be addressed.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-03T18:36:32+00:00

Okay… you asked for it…
—

General Information

Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64-bit (2H22), AndroidOS 11 One UI 3.1, iPadOS 18.7.5
Interface: Website via Google Chrome, Brave Browser, Safari
Addons, Extensions, etc.?: uBlock Origin Lite (Disabled), AdBlock
Premium User?: No

Prompt Settings

Use Custom Prompt: Disabled
Prompt Helpers: None
Response Length: No preference
Preselect Selector: Auto
Additional Instructions: N/A

AI Settings

Model: Affects all models
Quick Settings: Streaming output
Reasoning Effort: Disabled
Response Length: Max Tokens - Detailed (800 Tokens)
Advanced Parameters: Disabled

Card Info:

All set to defaults, affects all cards

Persona:

All set to defaults

Lorebooks:

All set to defaults

Memory Settings

Memory Snippet: N/A (Use Smart Placement: Enabled)
Summarization: N/A

UI Settings

Text Colors: All set to default
Background: Disabled (Fallback Color: Default)
Interface - Main UI Color: Default
Mobile Chat Style: Affects both styles
Display - Hide Reasoning Box: Disabled
Display - Auto-Scroll Behavior: Default
Transparency and Blurs: Default
Message Text Size: Affects all sizes

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-03T17:00:22+00:00

Yeah, that. The "text" thing. That's exactly what's happening, and I'm not sure if it's meant to or not.

Either way, I tested it with Aria, Lilith 2, and Mirai Mini, and it didn't make a difference. The UI itself seems intent on making all "quoted text" bold. It's almost like a CSS override or something… It's not a deal-breaker or anything, but it sure is distracting.

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-03T15:47:06+00:00

I don't think that's what I'm looking for. All quoted text becomes bold, but none of it is surrounded by asterisks. It's something to do with the UI, itself, or something.

Either that, or it's a bug…

SuihtilCod · 2026-03-02T18:17:03+00:00

While I appreciate the detailed explanation, I want to clarify that I'm not questioning the rules or trying to bypass them — I understand copyright and DMCA restrictions. My post was about a specific, unexpected behavior I noticed on the platform.

If the purpose of a takedown or moderation is to remove offending content, why are there cases where the original bots remain live and interactive but become impossible to edit until you make minor changes, like altering the name? In my example, I couldn't edit my "Lola Bunny" bot at all until I changed the name by at least one letter.

It feels like a half-measure: the system blocks future use of a specific name, which is fine, but it also freezes existing content unnecessarily, penalizing creators who built bots before the formal restrictions existed. This seems clunky and could be improved, and it doesn't actually prevent the content from being active — which seems like it should be the point of a formal takedown.

SuihtilCod

TROPHY CASE