Aicrest did not begin as the app it is today.
The original version was built around integrating with existing AI companion services such as Nomi and Kindroid. In many ways, that was the fastest way to get started. It let me experiment with the idea of an AI companion app, build the user experience, and learn what kind of interactions people actually wanted. But it also came with a serious limitation: the core experience depended on other platforms.
That dependency created both product and business problems. It made it harder to clearly position the app as something distinct on the App Store and in communities like Reddit, because too much of the experience was still tied to external services. It also meant ongoing backend and infrastructure costs, even when usage was low. I quickly realized that it was not sustainable.
At that point, I had to make a decision. I could either shut the app down or rebuild it around a more independent foundation. I chose the second path.
That decision is what led to the current version of Aicrest. Instead of acting mainly as a client for third-party AI companion services, Aicrest gradually became its own AI companion system. Today, the codebase is centered around Aicrest as a standalone companion experience, with its own local data model, its own companion state, and its own on-device language model flow. Conversations, memories, profiles, relationships, diaries, avatars, and voice settings are all organized around Aicrest itself, rather than around an outside provider. In other words, the app stopped being just an integration layer and started becoming its own product. The app’s identity is much more clearly defined: a local-first AI companion app that aims to be more private, more resilient, and more self-contained.
That shift also helped clarify something else for me: the original concept still had value, but it no longer belonged inside Aicrest. It made more sense as a separate app. That is why the original service-integration idea has since been spun out into Aicott, Aicrest’s sister app. Aicott is currently under review for publication on the Apple App Store. Splitting the two ideas apart made both products easier to understand. Aicrest could move further toward its own independent identity, while Aicott could carry forward the earlier connected-services concept in a more focused way.
Looking back, that transition was not just a technical rewrite. It was the moment the app found its direction. What began as a practical experiment in AI companion integration became the foundation for something more ambitious: an AI companion that feels like it truly belongs on your device and in your life.