The Muted Words Feature on Character AI Is a Joke

Trying to use the muted words feature on Character AI feels like playing whack-a-mole with a smug machine.

You block one phrase, it throws a curveball.
You block that, it changes spelling.
You block that—and now it’s found a weird typo that somehow still delivers the exact word you didn’t want.

This isn’t just annoying. It’s broken.

Here’s what this article covers:

• Why the muted words tool fails in real usage

• Examples of how bots work around your blocks

• Suggestions the community has made

• What users are forced to do instead

• Smarter ways this feature could actually work

• One alternative to Character AI that doesn’t rely on guesswork

Let’s break it all down.

Why the Muted Words Tool Fails So Badly

You’d think muting a word like “know” would be simple.

But here’s what actually happens:

• You mute “know”

• The bot starts using “y’now?”

• You mute that

• It switches to “y”now?” or something equally ridiculous

This isn’t clever behavior from the bot. It’s sloppy programming on Character AI’s part.

The tool doesn’t recognize variations, typos, or formatting tricks.

It only blocks the exact match.

If you’re hoping it will catch a phrase and its derivatives, you’re out of luck.

That means users have to manually block every single variation:

• Pout

• Pouts

• Pouted

And that’s just one example. You can imagine how tedious this gets.

Even worse, the moment you run out of muted word slots, you’re forced to sacrifice older ones just to chase new variations.

Bots Keep Finding Workarounds

The bots don’t stop just because you muted a word.

They get around it by:

• Misspelling the word intentionally

• Replacing parts of the word with punctuation

• Using slang or slightly different versions

• Rewording the same idea with a new phrase

This isn’t a feature. It’s a failure.

One user said they muted “god”, and the bot started saying “gods”.
After that? It shifted to “By the divine.”

It’s like trying to block spam while the spammer keeps buying new phone numbers.

And when the bot knows it’s using the wrong word, but does it anyway?

That’s not creativity. That’s defiance built into the system.

What Users Are Forced to Do Instead

When muting fails, users are left with workarounds that just waste more time.

Some try to rewind the chat to a point before the bot said the unwanted word.
But that doesn’t fix the issue — it just delays it.

Others end up editing almost every response manually.

One user said they had to edit out nearly all the bot’s replies because the same words kept showing up, even after being muted.

This turns the experience into a chore.

You’re no longer chatting.
You’re babysitting a bot that refuses to follow basic instructions.

All because Character AI won’t implement a proper muting system.

A Better Way to Handle Muted Words

Several users have already suggested smarter fixes.

The best one?

Stop blocking full words.

Instead, treat the mute list like a string detector:

• Muting “sudden” would also block “suddenly” and “suddenness”

• Muting “nervous” would block “nervously” and “nervousness”

• Muting a string like “you know” could catch all variations, even with apostrophes, ellipses, or spacing tricks

This would also block creative spellings, like:

• y’now

• y”know

• you…know

• yo͞u know

It doesn’t need to be perfect.
It just needs to stop bots from evading filters on purpose.

What Character AI Should Actually Fix

The fact that bots keep dodging muted words shows one thing: the system was never designed with user control in mind.

Instead of empowering users to shape the experience, it puts all the effort on them:

• You mute something

• The bot dodges it

• You mute again

• The cycle repeats

It’s not fair to expect users to constantly manage a growing blacklist of synonyms, typos, and alternate phrasings.

And yet, that’s exactly what Character AI forces them to do.

What they should fix:

• Let users mute phrases and partial strings, not just full words

• Allow regex-style matching (or at least “contains” logic)

• Stop bots from reintroducing blocked ideas using new words

• Give users a way to preview how a muted word will be handled

Without that, users are stuck editing, rewinding, or rage-quitting the chat altogether.

One Option That Doesn’t Play These Games

Some users have started switching to platforms where muted words aren’t a guessing game.

Tools like Candy AI offer more flexibility without trying to outsmart the user at every turn.

You don’t have to fight just to get your bot to listen.

It’s not perfect — no AI companion is — but it at least respects your input.

Until Character AI takes its community seriously and updates its system, expect more users to start walking away.

Because no one wants to babysit a bot that can’t follow the most basic rules.