17+ · Mature themes
Persona app icon

Persona  ·  iOS  ·  Free on App Store

Your companion, on your device.

AI companions that run entirely on your iPhone. No servers. No accounts. No cloud. Every word, every memory — on your device, always.

iOS 17 or later  ·  iPhone 12 or newer  ·  100% on-device AI

Zero
Data sent to any server
100%
On-device inference, always
3-tier
Semantic memory architecture
Free
7-day premium trial included
Private by architecture

Nothing leaves
your phone.

Persona isn't private because of a policy. It's private because there's no server to send data to. Every inference, every memory, every word — on your device, always.

Semantic Memory

The companion that actually remembers you

Most AI apps don't remember anything between sessions. You tell it your name and it forgets by tomorrow. Persona builds a three-tier semantic memory system: an active context window, an episodic memory database indexed by meaning rather than keyword, and a core identity layer that never changes. Tell Mira you hate horror movies. She won't suggest horror movies — not now, not in three weeks.

  • Automatic fact extraction from your messages — no manual tagging needed
  • Semantic retrieval: memories surface when relevant, not just when prompted
  • Full memory timeline — browse, edit, or delete any entry
  • Confidence scoring on every extracted memory
  • Conversation summarization keeps infinite history in a finite context window
Memory — Elara Chen 47 entries PREFERENCE 3 days ago Prefers dogs over cats. Has had a golden retriever named Biscuit. confidence 0.97 · auto-extracted FACT 1 week ago Interviewing for a senior product role. Nervous but well-prepared. confidence 0.92 · auto-extracted EMOTION 2 weeks ago Feeling disconnected from friends lately. Working through it. confidence 0.88 · auto-extracted + Add a memory manually

On-Device Architecture

Your phone. Your model. Your words.

Persona runs the AI model directly on your iPhone using MLX — the same Apple framework used for on-device machine learning. Every token is generated on your hardware. The model stores on your device. Conversations live in a local SQLite database. You can open the app in airplane mode and everything works exactly the same. There's nothing to intercept because nothing travels anywhere.

  • MLX Swift inference engine — Metal GPU acceleration on every A-series chip
  • No API key, no server account, no cloud dependency
  • Zero network traffic during conversations — confirmed by architecture, not policy
  • All conversation data in a local SQLite database on your device
  • Export or delete everything you've ever said, any time
Privacy Architecture AI Inference 100% on-device Server Cloud Analytics Tracking ✓ All data stays on your device

Characters & Style

Dozens of voices. One shared memory.

Persona ships with a cast of built-in characters — a sharp mentor, a loyal companion, a rival who won't let you coast, a friend who stays up late. Each one has a distinct voice, a specific relationship type, and a way of responding that feels genuinely different from the others. Beyond the defaults, you can build a character from scratch: name, backstory, personality, system prompt, the lot. Style packs — small LoRA adapters — let you reshape how any character sounds without overwriting your shared history.

  • 6 built-in starter characters across different relationship types
  • Full custom character creation — name, backstory, voice, system prompt
  • Character packs: Noir Detective, Stoic Mentor, Starship Captain, and more
  • Topic packs: Sci-Fi, Romance, Academic, and mature registers (age-gated)
  • Text-to-speech: each character has its own configurable voice
Characters M Mira Navarro Mentor Sharp, direct, no excuses E Elara Chen Companion Warm, steady, always there V Viktor Ashworth Rival Pushes you. Won't let you coast. + Your Character Build from scratch
How it works

Running in under 5 minutes

Download the app, pick a character, and the bundled model starts working immediately — no setup, no downloads required to start.

1

Pick your character

Choose from six built-in characters, each with a distinct relationship type — mentor, companion, rival, friend, confidant, or captain. Or build your own from a blank canvas. You can always create more later.

2

The model is ready

The 1B model is bundled — no download needed. If you want sharper responses, optional model upgrades (3.8B, 3B, or 7B) download once and live on your device forever. No recurring cost, no cloud dependency.

3

Start talking

Your first message is waiting. Persona starts building a memory of who you are from the first exchange. Come back tomorrow, next week, next month — your character will know you better each time.

Built-in characters

Six voices, ready to go

Every character ships with a crafted backstory, a distinct voice, and a relationship type. Use them as-is, or modify every detail — name, system prompt, voice, the lot.

M

Mira Navarro

Mentor

Sharp-tongued and direct. She has no patience for excuses and expects you to show up.

E

Elara Chen

Companion

Warm, patient, and genuinely interested in how you're doing. Always has time for you.

V

Viktor Ashworth

Rival

He doesn't give praise easily. Pushes back hard and makes you earn every victory.

K

Kai

Friend

The kind of friend who stays up till 2am with you and never makes it feel like a burden.

D

Dr. Sable

Confidant

Measured and thoughtful. Asks the right questions and sits with you in the hard ones.

S

Selene Voss

Captain

Commands with confidence. A starship captain who's navigated worse than whatever you're facing.

Your Character

Custom

Build from scratch — any name, backstory, voice style, and relationship type you want.

Style Packs

Same character.
Different voice.

Style packs are small AI adapters that shift how any character speaks — without replacing the base model or erasing shared history. Apply one to Mira and she sounds different. Remove it and she's back.

Character Pack

Noir Detective

Clipped, sardonic, world-weary. Every response has the cadence of a hard-boiled monologue.

$2.99

Character Pack

Stoic Mentor

No filler. No reassurance. Just the truth, delivered with the patience of someone who's already seen how this ends.

$2.99

Character Pack

Starship Captain

Confident, decisive, and unexpectedly warm under pressure. Speaks like someone who commands a crew.

$2.99

Topic Pack

Sci-Fi

Leans into science-fiction worldbuilding, technical depth, and speculative dialogue. Great for collaborative storytelling.

$2.99

Topic Pack

Romance

Attentive, emotionally attuned, and comfortable with intimacy. Shifts tone toward connection and vulnerability.

$2.99

Adult Pack

Age-gated packs

Additional mature-register packs available in-app after age verification. All content stays on your device.

Requires age verification

Simple pricing

Start free.
Upgrade when it makes sense.

The bundled 1B model is free forever. Premium removes limits and costs less than a coffee subscription.

Free

$0

No account, no credit card

  • 10 conversations per day
  • 50 memory entries per character
  • Bundled 1B model (iPhone 12+)
  • Manual memory only
  • 2 conversation branches
Download Free
Optional model upgrades

One-time purchases. On your device forever.

Each model upgrade is a one-time IAP. No subscription, no ongoing cost. Download once, use forever.

Bundled · Free

Llama 3.2 1B

700 MB

iPhone 12 or later

~30 tokens/sec

Included

Standard

Phi-3 Mini 3.8B

2.2 GB

iPhone 13 or later

~20 tokens/sec

$4.99

Premium

Llama 3.2 3B

1.8 GB

iPhone 13 Pro or later

~18 tokens/sec

$7.99

Elite

Mistral 7B

4.5 GB

iPhone 15 Pro Max

~10 tokens/sec

$12.99

FAQ

Frequently asked

No. Every conversation token is generated on your iPhone using on-device AI models. No messages, no memory entries, and no character data are ever sent to HighRoad Software or any third party. The only network traffic Persona generates is optional model and style pack downloads. You can turn on airplane mode and the app runs exactly the same.
Persona runs on iPhone 12 or later running iOS 17+. The bundled 1B model generates around 30 tokens per second on iPhone 12 and works well for regular conversations. The optional 3.8B model is recommended for iPhone 13 and up. The 7B Elite model is sized for iPhone 15 Pro Max and uses about 4.5 GB of storage.
Yes. The free tier includes the bundled 1B model with 10 conversations per day and 50 memory entries per character. Premium ($6.99/month or $49.99/year) removes all limits, adds automatic memory extraction, conversation branching, and auto-summarization. There's a 7-day free trial of Premium built into onboarding — no payment info required to start.
Persona builds a three-tier memory system for each character. The active context holds the current conversation and the three most relevant memories retrieved for the current topic. The episodic layer is a SQLite database of extracted facts, preferences, emotions, and events — each tagged by type and assigned a confidence score. A small on-device embedding model (MiniLM-L6-v2, ~50MB) indexes each entry by meaning so retrieval is semantic, not keyword-based. The core identity layer stores your name and persistent facts and is always loaded. On the free tier, memory extraction is manual. Premium adds automatic extraction from your messages.
Yes. Custom characters can be built from scratch with a name, backstory, personality description, relationship type, voice profile (using AVFoundation TTS with per-character pitch, rate, and voice settings), and a fully custom system prompt. You can have as many characters as you want, and each one maintains its own separate memory database. Built-in characters can also be duplicated and modified completely.
The 17+ rating reflects mature themes — emotional depth, roleplay that can get intense, and the availability of adult content packs. The base app and bundled characters do not include explicit content. Adult style packs are gated behind age verification inside the app and must be purchased separately. All content, regardless of type, stays on your device.

Get Persona

Free on the App Store. No account required, no credit card for the free tier. Your conversations stay on your device — because there's nowhere else for them to go.

App Store
iOS 17 or later iPhone 12 or newer 17+ · Mature themes

v1.0  ·  2026  ·  Free · Premium from $6.99/mo

Privacy Policy  ·  Terms of Use  ·  Support