Overview
- - Friend is shifting focus from its $129 always-listening pendant to a web-based chatbot that lets people start chatting for free.
- - CEO Avi Schiffmann claims the press-driven surge pushed the service past 200,000 users, a figure presented without evidence of retention or sales.
- - Prior disclosures and reporting show far lower adoption of the hardware, including an investor update citing 434 activations and later coverage noting roughly 1,000.
- - New York’s subway takeover—more than 10,000 posters reportedly costing about $1 million—continues to draw scorn, with widespread defacement documented.
- - Public criticism has intensified over privacy and loneliness exploitation, and a Gothamist visit found Schiffmann unwilling to engage passersby at a heavily advertised station.