Friend doubles its talking pendant to $249

Friend relaunched its AI companion pendant at $249, nearly twice the original $129 price, adding a speaker that lets the device answer aloud rather than only through text. The Verge reports that Friend 2.0 also offers a $10 monthly subscription for conversation memory beyond 30 days, nine months after protests targeted the company’s New York subway campaign. For consumer-AI builders, the relaunch reinforces the commercial trap facing screenless AI wearables: a more natural interface still has to justify both premium hardware and recurring memory fees.