The AI character chat guide

What AI character chat is, and what it is not

A character has a job, a place and a way of talking. You type a line, and they answer as themselves. Ingeborg Talvane, 26, runs a guild hall at the edge of a haunted forest and hands out quests. Anselm Kovacic, 25, test pilots salvage frames at an orbital shipyard. Talk to either and the reply comes from that hall or that hangar, not from a help desk.

Every character on oeYYeo is AI, and the app says so under the box where you type. There is no person on the other side, and the cast does not give medical, legal or financial advice. The closest comparison is improv with a partner who never drops the scene.

How to start a good first conversation

Most flat chats fail in the first line. "Hi, how are you" gives a character nothing to do. A situation does. Five moves fix most openings:

• Answer the greeting in kind. If Mireya Castellan asks coffee or tea, pick one, or say both.
• Bring a situation, not a question. "I just got back from the ridge and my shield is smoking" gives Ingeborg a scene to run.
• Decide who you are. A name, a job and one thing you want is enough.
• Use nouns from their world. Anselm has a checklist. Odalys Venn has shelves of lost umbrellas and a lantern that burns blue.
• Keep your turns short. Two or three sentences leave the character room to answer with something you did not expect.

How to steer when a reply misses

Replies arrive as they are written, word by word, so you can read along and plan your next move. If a reply drifts, do not argue with it. Add a concrete beat inside the story instead: the hangar lights fail, a stranger walks into the cafe, a ghost hands in a letter. A new event pulls the scene back faster than a correction.

If the scene has gone stale, restate it in one line: where you are, what just happened, what you want. Characters stay in character, so asking one to drop the act will not work. They keep being themselves. Tell them plainly, in the scene, what you want to happen next. Inside the limits below, they will run with it.

What the characters will and will not do

Knowing the edges up front saves a wasted evening. These hold for the whole cast and for every character members write:

• Chat is for adults 18 and over. oeYYeo asks for a year of birth once, before the first message.
• Light, playful banter between adults is fine, flirting included. Anything sexual is refused, in character, and the scene moves on.
• No gore and no real-world instructions for harm. Danger stays on the page.
• In a crisis, the character steps out of the story and points to real help (988 in the US). oeYYeo is not a crisis service.
• Every character's page has a Report button, and a person reads reports.

Where to go next in these guides

New to all of it? Read how AI character chat works first, then is AI character chat safe. Want a scene tonight? Roleplay ideas gives you openings, and roleplay tips covers pacing, playing a role and handing the story back and forth.

Want to build someone of your own? Start with original character ideas, then how to make an original character. If you are switching from another app, read the alternative guide. Curious what a character sounds like out loud? The voice calls guide covers calling any character, which is part of the paid plan.

In their own words

Read next

• How AI character chat works: AI character chat is a conversation with a written character who replies in their own voice and stays in character. Here is how it works on oeYYeo.
• Roleplay tips for a better scene: Roleplay tips that work: set the scene in a line or two, give the character something to react to, stay in the world, and steer from inside the story.
• Is AI character chat safe?: AI character chat can be safe for adults on a service with clear limits, if you guard what you type. Here is what to check and what oeYYeo does.
• How to make an original character: Make an original character in eight steps: name, genre, job, want, flaw, voice, boundaries, then the look, so they sound like nobody else.