Character.ai launches Stories to keep teens engaged as it scales back open-ended chat for under-18s

Date:
Wed, 03 Dec 2025 16:02:02 +0000

Description:
Character.ai is phasing out open chat for teens, and Stories is its plan to keep them entertained.

FULL STORY

In a shift away from being a character-based AI chatbot, Character.ai is embracing a multimodal future by launching a new feature called Stories in an effort to keep teen users on board.

Character.ai began phasing out open-ended chat for all under-18 users on November 24, starting in the U.S. and expanding to other countries. The move followed the tragic case of a 14-year-old who spent months interacting with
one of Character.ais chatbots before taking his own life. His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, arguing that inadequate safeguards contributed to the suicide, prompting the site to implement a series of new safety measures.

Although open-ended chat is going away completely for under-18 users, Character.ai will still offer access to features like the interactive Feed, Imagine, Avatar FX, Streams, and now the new Stories feature.

What are Stories?

Stories turn Characters from Character.ai into co-stars in a guided, visual adventure that you help create.

You pick two to three Characters, choose a genre, then select a premise (or
let Character.ai generate one). From there, you dive into a storyline where
you make choices that determine where the plot goes.

Stories can be replayed with different decisions, and you can compare endings with friends by sharing them in your Feed. They feel a little like watching
an anime episode that pauses for you to choose what happens next. A Character.AI Story in action.

Whats it like to use?

I tried the new Stories feature, and it wasnt quite what I expected from an
AI chatbot company. Instead of generating an entire story from scratch, I
used one of its preselected story templates: Cafs and Cloaks The Chronicles
of Princess Ira , a tale about a vampire princess hiding from the Royal
Guards while trying to live a normal life working in a magical caf.

As you can imagine, this story was aimed squarely at teens.

Its very visual. Each segment of the story includes an illustration, but instead of freely interacting with the characters, the narrative moves
through fixed waypoints where you must pick between three choices to
determine your next action. Character AI's Stories are aimed at the teen market.

Personally, I found this a bit restrictive. It reminded me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books, like The Warlock of Firetop Mountain , that I read as a teen.

Character.ai says more formats, features, and creative tools for Stories are coming, and the visual presentation is strong. But if the company wants to truly win over teens, it may need a middle ground between unrestricted AI
chat and a limited set of three branching options.

Still, Stories is a promising start. Its a safe, structured stand-in for the open-ended chat teens actually want, but its also a foundation. If
Character.ai can evolve Stories into something more flexible and less on
rails, it could become the leader in a new kind of AI entertainment.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/character-ai-launches-storie s-to-keep-teens-engaged-as-it-scales-back-open-ended-chat-for-under-18s

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