Backyard AI review: what still works in October 2026

We read the public site from a US connection: the homepage, the subscriptions page, the desktop download page, four public character pages, the terms, privacy policy and community guidelines, plus the App Store and Google Play listings. Then we opened the sign-up page. It offers only Google, Discord, Apple or X, with no email option, so we stopped there.

We have no first-hand numbers for reply speed, memory or the weekly free limit. Everything below comes from Backyard's own pages and store listings. We paid nothing.

Backyard AI is a roleplay and storytelling chat service from Ahoy Labs, Inc., a California company. It started as Faraday.dev, a desktop app that ran open models on your own computer, and rebranded to Backyard AI in May 2024. Characters come from the Community Hub, where creators publish personas, scenarios and lorebooks; you can also build your own.

The tools are aimed at people who like to tune things: lorebooks for world details, an author's note to steer the scene, grammars to force a reply format, and model settings such as samplers and context length. The homepage pitch is "Fictional Text & Voice Chats With No Filters".

Partly. The web app loads, public character pages work, and the subscriptions page still offers "Chat for Free". But that same page says new paid subscriptions and plan upgrades are currently unavailable.

The desktop app, the reason many people used Backyard, now carries a "Deprecated" notice and is no longer supported; Homebrew marked its package discontinued in September 2026. Tethering a phone to your own PC was a desktop feature. The iOS and Android apps were last updated in August 2025, and the newest blog post dates from October 2024. Nothing on the site explains the plan.

The subscriptions FAQ says you can try both the Standard and Pro models "for free with 300 free messages per week". With paid plans closed, that free allowance is the whole offer for new users. We couldn't confirm the number because sign-up requires a Google, Discord, Apple or X account.

Backyard doesn't filter what the model writes in your private chats. Rules apply to characters shared on the Hub: every character must portray an adult over 18, explicit ones must be marked mature, and incest and non-consensual sexual content are banned.

Two weak spots. The guidelines allow "respectful and fictional character portrayals" of real people as homage, which leaves room for real-person bots. And the terms contradict themselves: one section says nobody under 18 may use the site, another lists "not under the age of 13" with parental permission for minors. The iOS app is rated 16+.

The privacy policy (updated October 29, 2024) keeps data "for as long as it is necessary" and handles deletion requests by email to [email protected]; we found no self-service delete button on public pages. The subscriptions FAQ says data is protected with "industry-standard encryption". The policy doesn't say whether chats are used to train models.

Pick it if you already know Backyard's tools, want free roleplay with lorebooks and fine model control, and don't mind a service that may change without notice.

Skip it if you want to pay for bigger models or longer memory, need a local desktop app, or want a service with clear support and updates. HammerAI is the closest match for a local, desktop-first setup.