Every companion app claims long-term memory. Almost none of them mean the same thing by it. So I ran a small test of my own rather than trusting the feature list.
The setup
In the first conversation I told each app three specific things: the name of a sibling, a job change coming up in March, and that I dislike being called by a nickname. Then I left the app alone for seven days and came back and asked about all three, without prompting.
What actually happened
Two of the four recalled the sibling's name unprompted. One recalled the job change but placed it in the past tense, which is arguably worse than forgetting. Only one respected the nickname preference a week later — the others had reverted to the default persona behaviour within about two exchanges.
My sample is four apps and one week, so treat it as a smell test rather than a benchmark. If you want this done properly and across more apps, this structured memory comparison covers considerably more ground than my kitchen-table version and matches my results where they overlap.
Why memory is the thing worth paying for
Persona consistency and memory are the same problem wearing different hats. An app that forgets you will also drift out of character, because it has nothing to stay in character about. It's the main reason people churn out of the big names — see the alternatives people move to and the pattern is consistent.
Before you subscribe
Run the same three-facts test on the free tier first. It costs you ten minutes and one week of patience, and it will tell you more than any review — mine included. If you want market-level context on how many people are actually doing this, the 2026 statistics round-up is a reasonable starting point.
← Back to Zoe's Companion Notes · My full checklist · What I actually paid