Friend · Pendant · Ranked #10

Friend

Name: Friend
Brand: Friend
Price: 249 USD
Availability: InStock

Friend is an always-listening companion necklace that now talks back, not a capture tool, and it only hears the room while an iPhone is paired.

Scores

4.8out of 10scored 2026-09-16 · How scores are built

Shipping · $249 · 30-day memory, or $9.99/mo · Manufacturer page

Why this total. Axes are 0–10 in half points; Contributes is score × weight.
Axis	Weight	Score	Contributes	Reasoning
Capture	23%	5.5	1.27	Friend captures continuously on a single microphone while the iPhone app is in Bluetooth range, and hears nothing if the phone disconnects — with no published pickup range.
Intelligence	17%	4.5	0.77	Friend talks back from a speaker as a cloud companion with a born-in voice, but it does not transcribe meetings, summarise them, or send actions into other tools.
Privacy	16%	4.0	0.64	Friend listens whenever the iPhone app is connected, shows only reactive lighting rather than a session LED, and processes conversations in its cloud; it ships to the US and Canada, not the EU.
Battery	14%	5.5	0.77	Friend quotes 18 to 24 hours of typical use and a 30-minute USB-C charge, so it is a nightly-charge pendant rather than a week-long wearable, and the figure is not a continuous-capture rating.
Wearability	12%	5.5	0.66	Friend hangs on a necklace, talks from the pendant, and is splash resistant, but Friend publishes no weight, and it cannot be worn in a shower.
Look	7%	3.5	0.25	Friend is a glowing round pendant on a cord, so it reads as a gadget on the chest rather than as jewellery you would otherwise wear.
Value	11%	4.5	0.49	Friend is $249, with memories fading after 30 days unless you pay $9.99 a month, for a single-microphone companion that still needs an iPhone in range.
Total	100%	—	4.8	Weighted sum. See how scores are built.

Friend 4.8/10

Specifications

Friend — specifications. A figure the manufacturer does not publish is printed as Not published, not guessed.
Cost
Price	$249
Plan	30-day memory, or $9.99/mo
Year-one on the encoded plan	$368.88 if you pay for twelve months of the encoded plan. Not the ranking column.
Capture
Microphones	1
Capture mode	Continuous capture
Audio out	Speaker
Battery (active capture)	18 h — Friend quotes 18–24 hours of typical use, not a continuous-capture rating; the lower bound is used here.
Speech recognition	Cloud
Language model	Cloud
Body
Form factor	Pendant
Weight	Not published
Materials	Not published
Charging case	Not published
Recording indicator	Yes
Connectivity	Bluetooth
Companion app	iOS
Data export	No

What works

Speaks from the pendant, so a reply no longer requires unlocking the phone
Thirty-day memory is included; $9.99/mo is optional to keep memories
Splash resistant for rain and sweat, with a claimed 30-minute USB-C charge
Orders are listed as shipping within a few days in the US and Canada

What does not

iPhone only; Friend's own FAQ says Android is not supported
Listens only while the app is in Bluetooth range — disconnect and it hears nothing
No published weight, pickup range, or file export of audio or transcripts
Always-on capture of bystanders, with reactive lighting rather than a session LED

Friend is Avi Schiffmann’s wearable companion: a necklace that listens while it is paired, then answers as a personality rather than as a meeting recorder. The current hardware is the speaker model Friend announced as “friend 2.0” on 30 July 2026. It is on sale at friend.com for $249. That is the SKU this page scores. The first-generation pendant, which replied only by text, is not a separate listing.

It is ranked because it ships. It does not rank near the capture cards or the titanium ring, and it should not: a glowing puck on a cord is a weaker worn object than a ring, and a companion that refuses to be an assistant is a weaker intelligence score than a recap stack with connectors.

What it is

A round pendant on a necklace, with a speaker, a microphone, touch haptics, reactive lighting and USB-C. Friend’s own chips do not publish a weight, a housing material, a microphone count beyond “Microphone”, or a pickup range. Those fields are omitted here rather than guessed. The box lists the pendant, a necklace, a USB-C cable and a quick-start guide.

It pairs with an iPhone over Bluetooth and needs the internet. While the app is connected, Friend says the pendant is always listening; speak, and it replies out loud. Disconnect the app and, in Friend’s words, “they hear nothing.” That is not on-device buffering. It is a phone-tethered mic. Android is “not yet”: the FAQ requires an iPhone and the Friend app, which the App Store lists as iPhone-only, iOS 18.1 or later.

Each unit is born with a name, a voice and a personality. You cannot design your own. You can meet up to twenty companions in the app and connect one to the hardware. WIRED reported the 2.0 model as locked to a random voice; Friend’s live FAQ is the more specific claim, and it is the one this page uses.

Memories last 30 days on the included plan, or “forever” with a $9.99/month memory subscription. There is no annual SKU on the site. The ranking encodes $9.99/month as the paid option, not as a requirement to wear the necklace. Friend.com’s public HTML still carries the leftover meta keyword “no subscription”; the product FAQ on the same origin is the current price list.

Battery is “about 18 to 24 hours of typical use,” charging overnight, about 30 minutes for a full USB-C charge. That is not a continuous-capture hour figure, which is why this page uses 18 hours and a caveat rather than pretending 24 hours of always-on capture has been measured. Splash resistance covers rain, sweat and spills. Not showers, baths or swimming. Friend publishes no IP rating.

Living with it

The job is companionship. Schiffmann has said it is not an assistant and not a lover. There is no meeting transcript, no summary template, no Notion or Slack connector. Intelligence in this ranking is transcription, recap and whether a standalone agent can act from the body. Friend can now talk from the pendant, which is a real on-body reply. It still does not do the rest of that job.

Capture is continuous only inside iPhone Bluetooth range. A pendant that goes quiet when the phone is in another room will miss the conversation this category exists to catch. Limitless used to buffer speech on the device for that reason. Friend does not publish that capability.

Privacy is the other structural fact. Reactive lighting is on the spec list, so this page marks a recording indicator, but the light is not documented as a session LED that bystanders can read as “this is recording now.” Processing is in Friend’s cloud. Conversations are encrypted under a setup root key, and Friend says it does not sell personal data for marketing. It also tells you that you are responsible for local consent law. WIRED reported Schiffmann likely pulling the product from the EU because GDPR compliance was too expensive; the live shop ships only to the United States and Canada. This page lists no file export, because Friend documents an in-app memory visualisation and does not document getting raw audio or transcripts out.

The first units reached people after a slip. TechCrunch reported in January 2025 that Q1 shipments were delayed to Q3. The App Store listing’s 1.0 is dated 17 July 2025. Fortune published a hands-on of that text-only necklace in October 2025. The July 2026 speaker hardware is the one you can buy now. Weight, materials and a continuous-capture battery number remain unpublished on that page.

Who it is for

Someone who wants a necklace that talks back, will keep an iPhone in range, and is willing to let an always-on mic sit on their chest in public. If the job is a meeting table, a recording you can export, or a device you forget you are wearing, this is the wrong object. The Plaud Note Pro is the card that hears a room. The Vocci Ring is the band you can actually forget. Friend is the companion pendant, scored as one.

Briefing

Sources

Specifications and scores on this page are checkable against the citations below. A figure the manufacturer does not publish is omitted or printed as Not published, not guessed.