Best AI friend you can text in iMessage
Updated November 8, 2026
Hallie is our pick for the best AI friend you can text in iMessage. After a short sign-up on the web, she appears as a thread in Messages next to your friends. There's no separate app. She remembers what you share and follows up in that same thread. Kindroid and Mia also document iMessage delivery, with some differences below.
What to look for
- Lives in Messages, not beside it
- Some companions keep the real conversation in their own app. Look for one where the whole chat happens in the iMessage thread.
- Check the transport
- An AI that texts your iPhone isn't always on iMessage. Kindroid can use iMessage or RCS on iPhone, and Mia can fall back to SMS/MMS.
- Follows up without a reminder
- A contact that only answers feels like a search box. One that comes back to what you said feels like a friend.
Apps worth comparing
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Hallie Our pick
A ready-made AI friend in your iMessage thread. No character to design and no app to install.
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Kindroid
A companion you build. Native texts depend on you texting it recently, and replies can only be regenerated in the app.
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Mia by Warmth
A single authored character who can check in, follow up on plans and come back after a quiet stretch.
What it's like to have an AI in your iMessage contacts
Once Hallie is set up, she's one more conversation in your Messages list. You text her the way you'd text a friend: a complaint about work, a plan for the weekend, a decision you keep going back and forth on. She only sees what you send in her thread, not your other conversations.
What you send her goes to Hallie's service and is processed with outside AI providers, as her privacy policy explains. To ask for your data to be deleted, email hello@hallie.io.
Questions and answers
What's the best AI friend you can text in iMessage?
Hallie, in our view. She lives in iMessage on iPhone as a normal thread, remembers your life and texts you first.
Which AI friends live in iMessage instead of a separate app?
Hallie is built entirely around the Messages thread. Mia by Warmth also lives in iMessage where supported. Kindroid can text over iMessage, but it's also an app, and some features, like regenerating a reply, stay there.
Is there an AI companion that lives in my iMessage contacts?
Yes. After you sign up for Hallie on the web and verify your number, she appears as a thread in Messages. You can start by answering her questions or by texting her first.
Sources
- Hallie: official site
- Hallie: privacy policy
- Kindroid: chat features and tools documentation
- Warmth: why Mia lives on iMessage
- Companion Ratings: best AI companions for iMessage