Character.AI now lets users talk to AI characters over calls in multiple languages, including English and Chinese, says 3M users made 20M+ calls during testing
a16z-backed Character.AI said today that it is now allowing users to talk to AI characters over calls.
Context & Ripple Effects
Character.AI had already moved beyond solo text exchanges with its group-chat feature for AI characters and people, broadening the ways users could interact with its personas. Voice calls extend that product arc into a more conversational interface.
The reported testing usage gives the launch more weight than a feature announcement alone: users have already tried the call format at meaningful scale before its wider availability.
First-order effects
- Character.AI users can now speak with AI characters by phone-like call in multiple languages, including English and Chinese, rather than relying solely on typed prompts.
- The company gains a tested voice interaction surface, with 3 million users having made more than 20 million calls during testing.
Second-order effects
- Character-chat competitors face pressure to offer richer, lower-friction interaction modes as voice becomes a differentiator alongside the character library and text-chat experience.
- Voice usage creates a new engagement channel for Character.AI, making retention and feature access—not just chatbot output quality—more central to competition.
Third-order effects
- If voice features become standard in character apps, the category could shift from text-based chatbot sessions toward persistent, multimodal entertainment and companionship products.
- The broader contest may increasingly center on who can package characters into varied recurring experiences, a direction underscored by Character.AI's later testing of games to boost engagement.
The trend: Consumer AI character services are evolving from text chat into multimodal engagement platforms built around more natural, repeatable interactions.