Friend Is Back at Nearly Double the Price, Now With a Speaker
The AI companion pendant that papered New York City's subway with ads has relaunched as 'Friend 2.0', same concept, new voice feature, and a price tag that jumped from $129 to $249.
Key points
- Friend, the AI companion pendant, relaunched in 2025 with a built-in speaker, raising its price from $129 to $249.
- The original Friend spent $1.8 million of its $2.5 million in funding to buy the domain name friend.com.
- A public protest against Friend took place in New York City roughly nine months before this relaunch.
- Founder Avi Schiffmann announced the relaunch on social media, calling it "Friend 2.0," though the product's official name remains unchanged.
Friend is back. If you missed the first chapter, here is the short version: a startup launched a small wearable pendant, a physical device you wear around your neck, that uses AI to act as a personal companion. It texts you back when you talk to it. The company spent $1.8 million of its total $2.5 million in funding just to acquire the web address friend.com, then blanketed New York City's subway network with ads about AI companionship.
Now, about nine months after a public protest in New York City took direct aim at the product, Friend has relaunched.
What actually changed?
One thing changed: the pendant now has a speaker. Before, the device could only send you text messages. The new version talks back out loud, turning it from a silent pen pal into something closer to a voice companion.
That single addition pushed the price from $129 to $249, a jump of $120.
A new ad, first flagged by The Verge AI, shows two people speaking to their pendants about personal problems. The spot does not spell out the speaker feature directly, but the audio exchange makes it obvious.
What was the protest about?
Protest organisers said they wanted to highlight society's growing dependence on technology. Friend was the natural focus given how visibly the company had advertised across the city.
What made it unusual: Schiffmann, the founder, posted an image promoting the protest himself and then showed up to it in person.
Should buyers think twice?
The core product is the same concept, now with audio added. Whether $249 is reasonable depends entirely on how much a person values having an AI voice available on a pendant rather than, say, a phone app.
Schiffmann posted the new ad on social media with the label "Friend 2.0." The company's own website still lists the product simply as "Friend."
For anyone curious about the product, the price increase is worth weighing carefully before purchasing. The underlying technology, an AI that holds ongoing personal conversations, is available in various forms on smartphones at no extra hardware cost.
Common questions
What is the Friend pendant, exactly?
Friend is a small wearable device, worn on a cord around the neck, that connects to an AI designed to act as a personal companion. You speak to it; it responds, now by voice as well as text.
Is the relaunch a completely new product?
No. The pendant's core function is unchanged. The only confirmed new feature is the built-in speaker that lets the AI respond out loud instead of sending text messages only.
