Friend adds a speaker and raises its price to $249

Friend has returned with a revised version of its AI pendant, adding a built-in speaker and raising the price from $129 to $249. The microphone still cannot be turned off, while the device’s AI “personality” remains central to the product.

Previously, Friend sent replies only as push notifications through its app. The new version can speak directly from the pendant, leaving the concern about continuous recording intact and adding a voice coming from the user’s pocket.

What changed in the new Friend

The main hardware update is the built-in speaker. Friend says the pendant can now answer questions aloud rather than communicating only through app messages. The company has also updated the AI models responsible for generating responses, aiming for conversations that sound more natural and less like “autofill with self-esteem.”

Most of the concept is unchanged. Friend is still marketed as a wearable companion that adapts to its user and behaves like a separate conversational partner, complete with a randomized personality and voice.

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That design has already attracted strong criticism. The device is always listening, which puts it among gadgets that may prompt more suspicion than trust from potential buyers. Compared with smart speakers and headphones that include AI assistants, Friend is less an entirely new category than a wearable that asks users to accept both constant listening and a simulated companion.

Friend’s new price and subscription

Friend has previously used audience irritation as part of its promotion. After the startup’s first advertising campaign was met with a harsh reaction, founder Avi Schiffmann, according to Wired, reportedly began leaning more deliberately into hostility toward the product. The relaunch follows the same strategy: controversy is not being avoided but incorporated into the brand’s identity.

The price has now become another point of contention. The new Friend costs $249, compared with $129 for the earlier version. Wired also reports that a $10 monthly subscription is required for memory lasting longer than 30 days.

That leaves buyers paying more upfront for the device and then paying separately if they want it to remember them beyond a month. The source does not provide additional details about the subscription’s other features or explain how the updated memory system works.

Friend versus other wearable AI devices

Friend is not the only attempt to package a personal AI assistant as a dedicated wearable. Humane AI Pin, which was frequently compared with Friend, also pursued that format but received a cool response.

Meta* is taking a more mass-market route through glasses and headsets, while Apple and Google are adding AI to familiar devices rather than asking customers to adopt a separate “friend” worn around the neck.

Friend is therefore selling more than a pendant with a microphone and speaker. It is also asking customers to join a risky social experiment—and to pay $249, plus a recurring fee for longer memory, for a device whose usefulness remains unproven by the information provided.

\* Meta is owned by a company recognized as an extremist organization in Russia, where its activities are prohibited.