Replika is the AI companion — 42 million users worldwide. In 2026, mid-way through a full rebrand — new CEO, evolved vision — they brought us in for design engineering on a flat team of twenty, across iOS, web, brand, and the design system.
The opportunity was defining the flagship features of the product's next era. The approach: ship directly with the lead iOS developer — direction to spec to build — with feature definition fed by the community's own channels. We learned that memory is the product: Memory V2 became Portraits, Life Arcs, and People Cards, built on structured memory drawn from conversation. We delivered the 2026 design system grown from the brand book, a 40-screen onboarding recast as a six-act narrative, and the dual-currency economy through which users shape the relationship.
Design engineeringDesign systemsConsumer mobileMemory interfaces2026