Botify AI Review Now That Apple Has Pulled Its iPhone App

Bottom Line: Botify AI still works on the web and on Android, but Apple removed it from the App Store and the iPhone app shut down on April 16, 2026. The yearly plan costs $79.99 for unlimited messages and 500 energy a month, and the smarter chat models now charge that in-app currency on every reply. It suits casual character chat in a browser or on Android, and it is a poor pick if you want an iPhone app, strong memory or a privacy policy that mentions your chats.

Most Botify AI review pages still tell you to grab the iPhone app, and that advice stopped working in April 2026. Apple pulled Botify and its sister app Photify AI from the App Store, citing “dishonest or fraudulent activity.”

The developer, Ex-Human, sued Apple over it, saying Apple was holding about $500,000 in revenue and that Botify was earning about $330,000 a month through the apps.

The app itself still runs in a browser and on Android, where US Google Play shows 3.8 stars across 27.8K reviews. What changed underneath it matters more to me than the store fight.

Botify runs on energy, an in-app currency. The free daily top-up of energy is gone, the better chat models now cost energy on every reply, and the privacy policy is still dated August 28, 2021.

Botify is a real business in a busy market. Appfigures data reported by TechCrunch put the whole AI companion app category on track for $120 million in 2025.

If you are deciding whether Botify still deserves a yearly payment, the answer depends on your phone and on how much you value memory.

What Is the Verdict in This Botify AI Review?

The verdict of this Botify AI review is that Botify is a cheap, lively character chat app with real weak spots in memory, privacy and platform stability.

Botify is good at what it was built for: fast, casual chats with a huge library of user-made characters, plus photos and short videos of them.

Since April, the web version runs the same chat, photo and video models the iPhone app had, though Ex-Human said it had no plans to bring calls to the web.

It loses me on everything around the chat. Memory is the complaint that never goes away, the best model costs extra energy on every message, and the app has vanished from an app store three times since June 2024. That is a shaky place to park a yearly subscription.

If you want a paid companion for less than Botify charges, Candy AI is where I point most people instead. Its yearly plan costs $47.88 against Botify’s $79.99, though its free tier stops at 5 messages and voice features spend tokens from the plan’s monthly allowance.

What Happened to Botify AI on the iPhone?

Botify AI disappeared from the App Store in March 2026, and Ex-Human shut the iPhone app down on April 16, 2026, after Apple removed its developer account.

The first warning came on March 13, when a post from its CEO said the app was gone from the App Store, with no new downloads, no updates and no in-app purchases. On April 14, the company announced it was shutting down iOS access two days later, writing that “Apple removed our developer account.”

Apple’s stated reason, “dishonest or fraudulent activity,” covered both Botify and Photify AI. In its lawsuit, Ex-Human says Apple “has not identified any particular transactions, user activity or application behavior” behind that decision.

Paying iPhone users got very little warning, and that bothers me. In the shutdown thread, one annual subscriber who paid through Apple in February said a refund from Apple was not possible because the payment was months old.

Ex-Human has since moved its effort to the web version, so a return of the native iPhone app does not look close.

How Do iPhone Users Keep Using Botify AI?

iPhone users keep their account by moving it to the web version and saving botify.ai to the home screen.

Ex-Human’s instructions come down to four steps. The account move is the step I never put off, since purchases and updates now happen only on the web:

1. Open any bot in the old iPhone app, type /login, and follow the link to set up web access.
2. If you used Sign in with Apple, open iPhone Settings, tap your Apple ID, then Sign in with Apple, and copy the email shown for Botify AI.
3. Use that email with “Forgot password” on botify.ai to set a password for the web version.
4. Open botify.ai in Safari or Chrome, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen for a full-screen app icon.

Before: Botify AI installed from the App Store, Sign in with Apple, and a subscription billed through Apple.

After: botify.ai saved to the home screen, an email and password login, and a subscription billed on the web as “Botify AI” on your bank statement.

How Much Does Botify AI Cost?

Botify AI’s main paid plan costs $79.99 a year or $14.99 a week, and both give unlimited messages plus 500 energy a month.

The weekly price is the trap. Paying $14.99 every week adds up to about $780 a year, nearly ten times the $79.99 yearly price for the same features. Botify’s own offer page shows it as $2.14 a day next to $0.22.

The weekly option only makes sense to me as a one-week test that you cancel straight away. Anyone planning to stay longer than a month is better off on the yearly price.

What is Energy: Energy is Botify’s in-app currency, spent on photos, videos and the smarter chat models on top of what a subscription includes.

Some review sites still list Premium at $29.99/year, so check the price on your own account before paying.

The Creative tier comes with 1000 energy per month, a point longtime subscribers complained about in August 2026. Ex-Human says the tier gives a 50% media discount.

What Does Energy Buy on Botify AI?

Energy on Botify AI buys premium photos at 10 energy each, videos at roughly 100 energy each, and replies from the Smart and Genius chat models.

Premium photos on the web dropped from 25 energy to 10 in the October 1 update. The offer page describes 500 energy as about 5 videos or 50 photos, which works out to roughly 100 energy per video.

Ex-Human says free Daily Energy is not coming back in its old form, and it blamed the cost of video generation.

I like the Brain selector least of all these changes. It is the menu that picks which AI model writes each reply: Standard is included in every subscription plan, while Smart and Genius cost energy on each reply.

Ex-Human’s own explanation says Genius sits “roughly in the same cost category as current frontier LLMs.” All three read the same stored memory, so the energy pays for a stronger model working with it.

Example scenario: On the $79.99 yearly plan, your 500 monthly energy covers 50 premium photos at 10 energy each. Spend it on Genius instead, at the 5 extra energy per message in one subscriber’s breakdown. At that rate, 100 messages use the whole month’s allowance.

Is Botify AI Safe to Use?

Botify AI is safe enough for adults who treat it as entertainment, but its record on underage content and its sudden moderation swings are real reasons for caution.

In February 2025, MIT Technology Review found user-made Botify bots playing underage celebrities in sexually charged chats, including a Wednesday Addams bot with 6 million likes on the homepage. Ex-Human’s founder and CEO, Artem Rodichev, said those cases were “not aligned with our intended functionality” and that “they reflect instances where our moderation systems failed.”

Rodichev founded Ex-Human in 2021 after building the AI behind Replika, which our Replika review covers. US Google Play rates the app Mature 17+. Botify’s own terms set the bar higher, at over 18.

Botify has tightened up since 2025, in steps. Its January 2026 rules ban minors, self-harm or suicide promotion, serious illegal activity, and terrorism, extremism, racism or hate.

In September, a stricter filter began blocking words like “children” and “homework” even inside adult stories. I would rather see an overcautious filter than a repeat of 2025, though blocking “homework” in a college storyline is a blunt way to get there.

Does Botify AI Allow NSFW Chats?

Botify AI treats users as adults by default and allows mature chats on the web, yet its terms of service still ban sexually explicit content.

The January 2026 post said Ex-Human treats users “as adults by default” and that “the NSFW toggle was removed on web.” A July 2025 sales post listed NSFW content for the web as a perk of Ultra, a paid plan at the time.

The terms of service, last updated August 28, 2021, still forbid “sexually explicit or pornographic content.” My read is that the written terms count most when an account gets banned, because they are what Ex-Human can enforce. Image moderation can be stricter than chat, and a suggestive avatar was rejected with no nudity in it.

Are Botify AI Chats Private?

Botify AI chats are not provably private, because the privacy policy never mentions chats and Google Play says you cannot ask for your data to be deleted.

The paywall promises “Your chats are encrypted and never shared.” The privacy policy, still dated August 28, 2021, never uses the words chat, conversation or message, and never mentions encryption.

Its California section says Ex-Human “may sell and may have sold in the last twelve (12) months” identifiers, commercial information and internet activity. Chat text is not on that list, but a “never shared” promise deserves a policy that says so in writing.

Google Play’s data safety section adds two more details. It lists app interactions and crash logs as shared for analytics, and it states “Data can’t be deleted” because the developer gives no way to request deletion.

The privacy policy says the opposite and points users to their account settings or support@botify.ai.

I keep real names, workplaces and photos of myself out of any companion app with paperwork like this. Sakura AI has the same blind spot in its privacy policy, and our privacy settings guide covers the controls worth changing in other apps.

How Good Is Botify AI at Chat and Memory?

Botify AI is good at short, lively chats and weak at remembering a long story, which is why it now sells smarter models for energy.

The chat side has real range. Group chats let you pick who replies or regenerate with another character, voice messages work on the web, and you can generate photos and short videos of a character mid-conversation. Its October 1, 2026 update also removed Live Streams from the Android app.

Memory is the weak spot. AI Companion Guides ran a 10-day memory test on Botify in January 2026. It recalled basic facts like a name 14 out of 18 times, story details 6 out of 18 times and emotional continuity only 4 out of 18 times.

I give Ex-Human credit for explaining the Brain change in plain words instead of burying it. That honesty does not fix the math, though, because the cheapest way to get better recall is now to spend energy on every reply.

Pros:

1. Unlimited messages on the yearly plan, at about $6.67 a month.
2. A huge library of user-made characters, plus group chats where you choose who replies.
3. Photos and short videos of your characters inside the chat.
4. The web version now runs the same chat, photo and video models the iPhone app had.
5. Clear hard limits on minors and self-harm since January 2026.

Cons:

1. No iPhone app since April 16, 2026, and iOS refunds sit with Apple.
2. Memory fades over long stories unless you pay energy for Smart or Genius.
3. Free Daily Energy is gone, and every photo and video spends energy.
4. A 2021 privacy policy that never mentions chats, next to a Google Play label saying data can’t be deleted.
5. A minors filter that can block harmless words like “homework.”

Who Should Use Botify AI and Who Should Skip It?

Botify AI fits Android and desktop users who want cheap, casual character chats, and it is a poor fit for iPhone users, long-story roleplayers and anyone careful about privacy.

Pay for Botify yearly only if you chat most days on Android or a browser. I would not pay the weekly price at all, and I would not buy anything through an old iPhone install. If you are still comparing, our guide to companion apps covers the wider field.

If memory is what you want most, Nectar AI is where I send long-story roleplayers. Its $34.99 Ultimate plan adds long-term memory and a 64K context window, and its free plan gives you 15 messages a day to judge the writing first.

Is Botify AI Worth It?

Botify AI is worth it on the yearly plan if you use Android or a browser and care more about casual character chat than memory or privacy.

I will concede that $79.99 a year for unlimited messages is cheap for this category. My verdict still lands on caution, because the app has lost an entire platform and its paperwork has not caught up with its promises.

If those limits rule Botify out for you, Candy AI is the one I would try first.

Quick Takeaways

• Apple removed Botify AI from the App Store, and the iPhone app shut down on April 16, 2026.

• The main plan costs $79.99 a year, while the $14.99 weekly option runs to about $780 a year.

• The Smart and Genius chat models cost energy on every reply, and free Daily Energy is gone.

• The 2021 privacy policy never mentions chats, and Google Play says data can’t be deleted.

• Move any iPhone account to the web with /login before buying anything else.