Melissa Blake
Senior Editor · AI Companion Platforms · Amsterdam
I write about AI companion apps and character-chat platforms as products people actually use. The Character AI guide on this site is mine — approach, sourcing, corrections and all.
Short version
Senior editor covering AI companion apps and character-chat platforms since 2022, when the category first started separating itself from general-purpose chatbots. My beat is consumer-facing: the products people sign up to, chat with, and choose whether to pay a subscription for. This site is where the Character AI-specific writing lives; the wider category reading informs comparisons, not standalone coverage.
The beat
Consumer AI companion apps, character-chat platforms, and adjacent tools. Character AI is the focus of this site. My wider coverage window includes Replika, Chai, Janitor AI, JanitorAI, Talkie, Kindroid, PolyBuzz, Candy AI, SpicyChat, Chub and PepHop. That range gives comparisons on the main guide a wider point of reference than a Character-AI-only view would.
How I approach a review
Live product, real account, over a long enough window that second-week behaviour shows up rather than just the onboarding pitch. For Character AI specifically, that means testing free and c.ai+ side by side during US evening peak hours (where Slow Mode and mid-chat ads land hardest), across web, iOS and Android on the same account. Filter behaviour is checked against fresh chats rather than long-running ones, because refusals compound differently once a thread has been flagged.
Claims about pricing, feature gating, or content-policy behaviour get verified against the current build before publication — not carried forward from an older draft. Where a claim rests on published research (loneliness effects, adolescent risk, engagement patterns), the source is cited inline with sample size and publication venue. Testing detail is documented on the methodology page.
What I don't do
No sponsored coverage. No advance sight for platforms of critical material about themselves. No coverage of a product I hold a financial interest in beyond the disclosed affiliate revenue detailed on the editorial policy page. If any of that changes, editorial policy is where the change gets logged first.
Contact
Primary channel is LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/melissablake1. Corrections, review requests and press queries route to the same address. Corrections get a seven-working-day turnaround; press queries move around active editorial work on a best-effort basis.
Location note
Amsterdam-based. Time-of-day observations in the main guide (peak-hour Slow Mode on Character AI, for instance) anchor to Central European Time by default. Where a timing claim would land differently across time zones, it is expressed in UTC.
Bylines on this site
- Character AI guide — platform overview, pricing, content policy, mobile apps, community links, alternatives, FAQ
- Review methodology — how the guide is sourced, tested and updated
- Editorial policy — independence, affiliate handling, sponsored content, corrections
- About the guide — site position, contact, disclosure
- Age verification — adult access policy
Profile last reviewed: July 11, 2026
Read next
- Character AI guide — the main editorial artifact under this byline
- About the guide — what this site is and how it is positioned
- Review methodology — how claims here are sourced and tested
- Editorial policy — independence, affiliate handling and corrections
- Privacy policy — how data is handled on this site
- Terms of service — reader agreement
- Age verification — adult access policy
- 18 U.S.C. § 2257 statement — record-keeping compliance