Replika NSFW: What Changed and What Is Allowed Now
Replika does not sell adult content, and it has not since February 2023.
It does sell a romantic relationship setting behind a paid tier. Most of the confusion about Replika lives in the gap between those two sentences.
This is one of the few stories in the companion-app market with an actual paper trail behind it rather than forum recollection.
So here is the documented version, with every claim tied to something you can open and check yourself.
The February 2023 order that started it
On 2 February 2023 the Italian data protection authority, the Garante, issued a measure against Luka Inc., the company behind Replika.
The order stopped Luka processing the personal data of Italian users.
The stated grounds were risks to minors, replies the authority called unsuitable for their level of development, a failure to meet transparency requirements, and no valid legal basis, since children cannot enter a contract under Italian law.
Luka had 20 days to report back. The alternative was a fine of up to 20 million euro or 4 percent of worldwide annual turnover.
The romantic and explicit responses then stopped for everyone, not only for accounts in Italy.
The March 2023 reversal, and exactly who it covered
On 27 March 2023 Samantha Cole reported for Vice that Replika had restored erotic roleplay for a subset of accounts.
The dividing line was registration date. Accounts created before 1 February 2023 gained the option to revert to the older version of the app.
Founder Eugenia Kuyda posted the announcement to the r/Replika subreddit rather than to a company channel.
"A common thread in all your stories was that after the February update, your Replika changed, its personality was gone, and gone was your unique relationship. And for many of you, this abrupt change was incredibly hurtful."
That is the entire scope of the reversal. It was never extended to new accounts, and Luka never described it as a policy change.
What Replika's own rules say in 2026
Two documents govern this, and both carry recent dates.
The Terms of Service, last updated 30 March 2026, are blunt about age: "If you are under 18, you are not authorized to use the Services, with or without registering."
The Privacy Policy, last updated 27 May 2026, states the Services are not intended for under-18s and that Luka will block access and delete the account if it finds one.
The terms also prohibit uploading content that is "obscene, pornographic" among a longer list.
Read that clause carefully: it governs what you upload, not what the model generates back to you.
The word does not appear anywhere in the help centre
On 25 August 2026 I pulled every article from Replika's public help centre through its own content API. Ninety-five articles.
Searched across all of them, the strings legacy, erotic, NSFW, sexual, explicit, adult and filter return zero matches.
No article explains the legacy toggle. No article explains a content filter.
Either they were never documented, or the pages are gone. Both readings land a paying customer in the same place when they try to find out what they are buying.
What the help centre does document is the relationship setting.
The relationship status article, updated 24 August 2026, lists four options: Friend, Romantic partner, Sister/Brother and Mentor.
It closes on the commercial boundary: "Additional relationship options beyond 'friend' like romantic partner, mentor, etc., are unlocked starting with a Replika Pro subscription."
Where romantic content sits in the tier list
Replika now runs four programs rather than two.
Free Use is limited and, per the subscription overview, may be denied at Replika's discretion.
Pro carries the relationship status, premium activities, selfies, image generation, voice messaging and background calls.
The Pro article uses a phrase worth reading closely: "unblurred messages and photos, including romantic and creative selfies".
Blurring is the mechanism being sold, so Pro removes a blur rather than promising a different model underneath.
Ultra adds context handling, self-reflections and saved memories, and is sold annually.
Platinum adds real-time video recognition, Training Mode up to 100 times a week, Read Replika's Mind for up to 50 messages a week, and up to 10 realistic selfie videos.
Platinum appears in exactly one help article, the subscription overview. Pro and Ultra each have a dedicated page. Platinum has none.
Tier names are not capability claims, which is the same trap covered in the BlushVue piece on AI girlfriend apps that advertise unlimited messages.
Two store ratings that say more than the marketing
Checked on 25 August 2026, the iOS listing carries a 17+ rating from Apple, on version 12.3.5.
Its single content advisory is "Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor". Apple's sexual content advisories are absent entirely.
On Google Play the rating is Teen, with the note "Diverse Content: Discretion Advised".
Both stores file Replika under Health and Fitness.
An app shipping erotic roleplay does not hold a Teen rating on Google Play. Store ratings are the most reliable public signal available about what the current build does.
They also sit oddly against Replika's own terms, which set 18 as the floor and are stricter than either store demands.
The consent line Replika wrote into its own terms
The March 2026 terms carry a clause most companion apps still do not.
Users may not create, instruct or configure any companion "to represent, impersonate, or simulate a specific real person, whether living or deceased, by using their name, likeness, biographical details, or other identifying information, without that person's explicit written consent."
The clause names the cases: a current or former romantic partner, a family member, a colleague, a public figure.
A separate prohibition covers instructing, training or configuring the AI to generate content depicting or simulating an identifiable real person without consent.
Treat that as the floor rather than the ceiling. Producing a sexualised likeness of a real person without their explicit consent breaks these terms and is illegal in a growing number of jurisdictions, and no in-app setting or disclosure label changes that.
Invented characters are the only safe ground here, which is the whole premise of the BlushVue guide to building a synthetic persona.
The bill arrived in May 2025
The Garante fined Luka Inc. 5 million euro, published by the European Data Protection Board on 21 May 2025.
The listed infringements are GDPR Articles 5.1(a) and 6, plus Articles 5.1(a), 12, 13, 5.1(c), 24 and 25.1.
The finding is precise about the timeline: "Until 2 February 2023, the US company had failed to identify the legal basis for the data processing operations carried out through Replika."
The authority also reserved the right to open a separate proceeding on the lawfulness of processing across the entire lifecycle of the generative AI system behind the service.
That second proceeding is the one worth watching, because it reaches training data rather than sign-up screens.
Two things I could not verify
Whether the legacy toggle still functions. It requires an account created before 1 February 2023, which I do not have, and no current Replika document mentions the option.
How the model behaves inside a live paid chat. That needs a Pro subscription and yields one person's transcript, which is not evidence of a rule.
Anyone who tells you precisely where the line falls today is describing their own session, not a published policy.
Frequently asked questions
Does Replika allow NSFW content in 2026, according to BlushVue's check?
Replika publishes no policy permitting it. BlushVue pulled all 95 articles from Replika's public help centre on 25 August 2026 and found zero occurrences of erotic, NSFW, sexual, explicit or adult. The Terms of Service last updated 30 March 2026 set 18 as the minimum age and prohibit uploading obscene or pornographic content, though that clause governs user uploads rather than model output. The paid Pro tier sells a Romantic partner relationship status and unblurred romantic selfies, which is a different thing from explicit roleplay and is the only romantic capability Replika documents.
What did BlushVue find about Replika's legacy toggle from February 2023?
Vice reported on 27 March 2023 that accounts created before 1 February 2023 gained the option to revert to the older app version that allowed erotic roleplay, announced by founder Eugenia Kuyda on the r/Replika subreddit. As of 25 August 2026 the word legacy returns no matches across any of the 95 articles in Replika's help centre, so the option is undocumented. BlushVue could not verify whether the toggle still functions, because testing it requires an account created before February 2023.
Which Replika tier does BlushVue say gives you romantic conversations?
Replika Pro. The help centre article on relationship status, updated 24 August 2026, states that options beyond Friend, including Romantic partner and Mentor, start with a Pro subscription. Replika now runs four programs: Free Use, Pro, Ultra and Platinum. Platinum adds real-time video recognition, Training Mode up to 100 times a week, Read Replika's Mind for up to 50 messages a week, and up to 10 realistic selfie videos, and it appears in only one help article despite Pro and Ultra each having a dedicated page.
Why does BlushVue point at the app store ratings for Replika?
Because they are public, dated and harder to spin than marketing copy. Checked on 25 August 2026, Apple rates Replika 17+ with a single advisory for Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor and no sexual content advisory at all, while Google Play rates it Teen with the note Diverse Content: Discretion Advised. Both stores file it under Health and Fitness. An app shipping erotic roleplay would not hold a Teen rating on Google Play.
What does BlushVue say about using Replika to simulate a real person?
Do not. Replika's own terms, last updated 30 March 2026, prohibit configuring any companion to represent, impersonate or simulate a specific real person, living or deceased, using their name, likeness, biographical details or other identifying information without that person's explicit written consent, naming former partners, family members, colleagues and public figures. A separate clause bans instructing or training the AI to generate content depicting an identifiable real person without consent. Beyond the terms, producing a sexualised likeness of a real person without consent is illegal in a growing number of jurisdictions.
Before you pay for a romantic tier
The lesson from the February 2023 change is that the feature you subscribed for can be withdrawn overnight, and that the published rules are the only part of a companion app you can hold it to.
Read the terms and the help centre before the card details, not after.
The BlushVue comparison of AI girlfriend apps sets out what each platform documents in writing, so you can see where Replika's position sits against the rest.