Anima vs Utsuwa

Anima is an AI companion for conversation and companionship, available on the web, Android, and iOS. Users can customize a companion’s personality, tone, style, and backstory, then chat or call with an AI friend. The service describes conversations that may be lighthearted, supportive, or deeper, and says the companion remembers details from earlier chats and can revisit previous topics. It is described as available 24/7. Getting started costs nothing; tokens can be purchased to unlock some higher-tier features. Anima is not intended for people under 18. Its privacy policy says it collects information such as names, email addresses, IP addresses, device details, and identifiers, and names Azure, Amplitude, AppsFlyer, Google, Firebase, Stripe, OneSignal, and RevenueCat among third-party solutions it may use. Users can contact [email protected] to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data. The blocked content policy says a proprietary LLM-based filter may flag content for manual review; violations can lead to account suspension or termination. The same email address is listed for questions and customer support.

Utsuwa is a free, open-source AI companion app built around a 3D VRM avatar, voice, memory, and a relationship system. It supports models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, DeepSeek, and xAI, along with OpenAI-compatible endpoints, Ollama, and LM Studio. Users can load their own VRM avatars. Local embeddings support semantic recall, and users can browse, search, add, or delete stored memories. Voice options include hosted and local services. The listed capabilities include voice conversations, persistent memory, proactive messages, and image or video chat. Utsuwa can run entirely on a user's machine with local models and voice services. Its maker says there are no accounts, analytics, ads, or tracking cookies, and conversations, memories, and settings stay on the device. In the hosted web app, cloud-provider requests may be relayed through Utsuwa servers; the maker says those servers do not store messages or API keys or log conversation content. Desktop messages go directly to the selected provider, but the desktop app is in beta and its builds are not code-signed. The maker states that Utsuwa is intended for adults aged 18 and over.