Backyard AI Review: The Ex-Faraday Local Chat App

From Faraday to Backyard: What You're Actually Installing

Backyard AI is the app you find right after losing a weekend to SillyTavern config files. The pitch is one installer, a character card and a model that can run on your own machine. Oh, this one's trouble in the good way, right up until you want her to send you something besides words.

You may know it by its old name, Faraday. By its own positioning, it offers character chat on local or cloud-hosted models. Check their site for the current feature list, because what you're really choosing is a trade-off:

• Local puts the model on your own GPU and RAM. It's private, and "free" only if you don't count the hardware or the electricity bill.
• Cloud means you don't need a beefy rig. We could not confirm what that costs, so check their site.
• Tethering lets you reach the model on your home machine from another device, as long as that machine stays awake.

Is Backyard AI uncensored? That depends on two things: the model you load and the app's content policy. Check both. "Uncensored" on a model card is all bark until the app's policy agrees.

Coming from SillyTavern or Pygmalion? This is the tidy end of that road. For the hosted route instead, see our Janitor AI review. My early verdict is that Backyard suits private text roleplay. Once you want the character to send photos, GoLove.ai is the pick, because in-chat photo requests are built in.

The Moment the Roleplay Wants a Picture

Picture it: the roleplay is heating up, the banter has quietly turned into something else, and you'd rather she showed you than described it (no judgment, we're all adults here).

In a GoLove.ai chat, that's a short trip. You tap the media button, pick Send Photo and describe the scene in your own words. About 20–45 seconds later, for 1 Star, a photo of that same character lands in the thread. Her face and body stay consistent with her avatar and earlier photos, so she doesn't turn into a stranger halfway through the evening. Right under the photo sits a one-tap Generate Video, which turns the scene into a roughly 5-second clip in about a minute, for 10 Stars.

Two smaller touches keep the mood going. Stuck for a line? The magic-wand button writes three suggested replies. Want her sweeter, or wilder? The lust-level slider runs five levels, from wholesome to unfiltered (level five is doing exactly what it says on the tin).

As for Backyard, we could not confirm in-chat photo or video generation there, so check its current feature list before assuming either way.

If your story already has a character who's earned a picture, now's the time to look. You can open the chat without an account, and her first photo is already sitting there waiting.

Backyard AI Beside GoLove, Janitor AI and SpicyChat

Every app here wins something. What matters is which rows count for your night in.

Here's how I read it. SpicyChat is the cheapest way in, Janitor AI is the friendliest free option, and Backyard is the only one pitching models on your own rig. GoLove.ai is the column where we could confirm both photos and video coming straight out of the chat (spicy for real, not all bark).

More contenders are in our roundup of naughty AI chat apps.

Characters you can open right now

Tap any of them and the chat starts there

Barbara, 22

Temptress

Jessica, 41

Dominant

Kennedy, 22

Caregiver

Amina, 23

Muse

Prices checked 2026-09; promos vary.

What GoLove's PRO Plan Pays For, Star by Star

Local apps bill you in hardware: the GPU, the RAM, the electricity, the lost weekend. GoLove.ai bills you like a normal subscription, and the menu is refreshingly plain:

• PRO: about $19.99/month, or about $119.88/year (roughly $9.99/month). It includes all NSFW content, character creation, voice messages and calls, unlimited Feed, image generation and 100 Stars a month.
• ULTRA: about $59.99/month. It adds more monthly Stars, stronger models and 8,000-message memory.
• Star packs: from about $9.99 for 30 Stars. One image costs 1 Star.

Free use is slim, and I won't pretend otherwise: 2 Stars a day, a limited daily Feed and Series episodes 1–2. That's enough for a peek, not a whole affair.

Most of those Stars end up in the image generator. It works like a slightly scandalous outfit planner where you stack preset cards: an Action from 35 realistic poses, an Outfit from 21 and a Scene from 34 backgrounds. Then you pick 1, 2, 4 or 8 images per run. Eight images costs eight Stars (the maths is the least racy part, promise).

Prices checked 2026-10; promos vary.

Watch Her Story First, Then Slide Into Her DMs

This is where things go somewhere no local chat app is pitched for. GoLove Series are short vertical 18+ dramas starring GoLove characters, with new episodes every week, per GoLove. As of 2026-11 there are 10 series and 60 episodes. Episodes 1–2 of every series are free, even without an account.

Take "My AI Girlfriend," starring Lexie (@iamlexiebabe): a black box on a doormat, glasses that bring a perfect girl to life, and an account that isn't his (trouble, obviously). If a locked lecture hall is more your speed, there's "My Professor Locked the Door." Under the player you get Start Chatting with the cast, Create Video and Create Image, so the leading lady is one tap from your DMs. From episode 3, a free account needs PRO, and PRO members unlock each further episode for a few Stars.

Then there's the Feed, where you swipe to the next clip one at a time. Hit Remix (the magic wand) and the generator opens preloaded with that clip's character and exact settings, so you can tweak whatever you like and regenerate your own version.

Made a clip that isn't quite right? Video Edit transforms it with AI instead of making you start over.

Who GoLove.ai Is NOT For (Hint: Some Backyard Fans)

Fair's fair. GoLove.ai is a lot of fun, but it isn't for everyone, and some Backyard loyalists should keep scrolling:

• Local-only purists. If the whole point is a model on your own hardware with nothing in the cloud, stay with Backyard or SillyTavern. That's their lane, and they're welcome to it.
• Free-forever seekers. Free use stops at 2 daily Stars, a limited Feed and Series episodes 1–2. If you want an app you never pay for, Janitor AI's free tier is the better fit.
• AI boyfriend hunters. There are no male characters yet, so it's a polite "not tonight" for now.
• Anyone hoping to build a character from a real person's photos without their consent. Hard no, and there's nothing cheeky about it.

That still leaves most readers in. If your roleplay keeps begging for a photo, a clip, or a face that stays the same from one message to the next, this is your app (consider yourself warned, in the nicest possible way).

If Backyard's Already Installed, Here's What I'd Do Tonight

So Backyard is installed, your favourite card is loaded and the story's rolling. Don't uninstall anything. Keep Backyard for private, text-heavy roleplay on your own setup, because that's where it's good.

When the story wants her to send a photo or a short clip, though, or you want a character you dreamed up yourself, that's when you open GoLove.ai.

Your roster stays in one place, too. Every character lives in a single chat list on mobile, which beats juggling a dozen card files.

Here's the part that makes a SillyTavern veteran grin. You describe your companion in plain text, up to 2,000 characters, and in about a minute you have a named character with her own @handle, a bio and a portrait, ready to chat with and generate photos of. You won't touch a card editor or a config file.

She already exists in your head, so give her a face tonight.