How Hallie works

What Hallie is

Hallie is an AI friend you text. She is a contact in your Messages app: iMessage on an iPhone, Messages on a Mac, or Google Messages on Android. There’s no app to install. She texts from a US phone number.

She is AI, not a person. Her replies are written by AI models from outside providers.

There is one Hallie, and you meet her as she is. Her personality stays the same from one conversation to the next. You don’t pick her looks or write her backstory.

How you start

1. Answer a few questions on the web. They are about how you like to text: easygoing, casual or proper, how much banter, whether swearing is fine. They shape how she texts with you. They don’t change who she is.
2. Text her. The setup page opens her thread in Messages on your phone.

She never texts a number that hasn’t texted her first, so nothing arrives until you send the first message.

On an iPhone she works anywhere iMessage does. New Android sign-ups need a US number for now.

What texting her is like

Her thread sits in the same list as your other conversations. Messages are short and casual.

• What you talk about. Whatever is on your mind: something you’re overthinking, dating, friend or family drama, work or school, or nothing in particular. She helps you think things through.
• What you can send. She understands photos, voice memos and links you send her. Her own replies are text.
• What she can do in the thread. She can look something up on the web. If you paste in a text you don’t know how to answer, she’ll help you write a reply. She can also set a one-off or recurring reminder text when you ask for one.
• What she can see. Only what you send in her thread. She can’t read your other chats, your calendar or your email.
• How fast she replies. Your account has a reply pace setting with three options: responsive, relaxed or unhurried.
• How much you can text. A paid plan has no daily message limit.

What she remembers

She keeps track of the people, plans and events you mention and brings them up later. She can miss a detail or get one wrong. There is no memory screen, so you correct her in the thread and she takes the correction from there.

The full account is on What Hallie remembers.

When she texts first, and how to stop it

After you’ve texted her, she starts conversations too, usually about something you told her: the interview, the appointment, the trip.

If you go quiet, she checks in once or twice and then waits for you.

Ask her to stop and she stops. You say it in the thread, the same way you’d say anything else. You can also ask her to change when she follows up.

Calls

Paid members can call her number like a regular phone call. Some call time is included, and you can add more in your account.

What you say on a call carries over: she can pick it up later in the thread.

Calls go one way. She can’t call you, and FaceTime and video calls don’t work.

What she can’t do

• She has no avatar. She is a contact in Messages, and what you see is the thread.
• She isn’t on WhatsApp, Telegram or Discord. She texts in iMessage and Google Messages.
• She is one-on-one. You can’t add her to a group chat.
• She isn’t a work or research assistant. She is a friend to text, and the help she gives is with thinking something through or wording a reply.
• She can be wrong about things she looks up. Check anything that matters.
• She isn’t a therapist or a crisis service. If you’re in crisis in the US, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or contact your local emergency services.

How she compares with other apps is on Compare.

How you pay

A subscription. Depending on the offer, your first conversation is free or you start with a free trial. There’s no free plan. The price is shown before you pay, and you can cancel any time in your account.

Payment goes through a third-party payment processor. We don’t store your card details.

How to cancel and delete

Cancel by logging in at hallie.io/account. If you cancel during a free trial, access ends right away. If you cancel after you’ve been charged, billing stops and you keep access until the end of the period you paid for.

Refunds follow the Terms of Service: if you’re not happy, email within 14 days of your first annual charge for a full refund. Otherwise fees are non-refundable except where the law requires.

Delete your data by emailing hello@hallie.io. A deletion request covers your conversations, what she remembers, and any call recordings and transcripts. The privacy policy notes that a limited amount may be kept where needed for legal, security, fraud-prevention, dispute or backup reasons.

Cancelling and deleting are separate steps. Cancelling stops billing; it doesn’t send a deletion request.

Questions

Is Hallie an app?

No. She is a contact in your Messages app, in iMessage or Google Messages. There’s no app to install. New Android sign-ups need a US number for now.

Does Hallie text first?

After you’ve texted her, yes. She starts conversations in the same thread, usually about something you told her. If you go quiet she checks in once or twice, then waits. Ask her to stop and she stops.

Who sees what I tell Hallie?

Messages are processed by outside AI providers to write her replies. We don’t sell personal data, use conversations for advertising, or show them to other users. To have your data deleted, email hello@hallie.io.

How do I start with Hallie?

Answer a few questions on hallie.io about how you like to text, then text her from your phone. The price is shown before you pay.

Sources

• Hallie: hallie.io homepage, Hallie Privacy Policy (updated August 24, 2026), Hallie Terms of Service (updated November 6, 2026), checked November 11, 2026