ScowldTalk to her.
She remembers.
An AI voice companion with an animated character, hands-free wake mode, bring-your-own-key AI providers, ElevenLabs speech, optional vision, and saved past chats.
Capabilities
Built for voice-first companion chat.
BYOK AI, speech, voice, hands-free wake, camera context, and local conversation history in one iOS app.
Voice input
Speak from the iOS composer using native iOS speech or your configured cloud STT provider.
Hands-free wake
When enabled, Scowld can listen locally for Bella or your custom name to start voice recording.
Home tips
A compact in-app guide explains wake phrases and the eye, hands-free, voice, send, and cancel controls.
Animated companion
A VRM character with lip sync, idle animation, and expressive response playback.
Optional vision
Enable camera context when you want the AI to respond to what you are seeing.
Past chats
Save conversations locally, switch between chats, and reuse one as context for future replies.
Bring your own keys
Use your own AI, speech-to-text, and ElevenLabs keys. Keys stay in the iOS Keychain.
ElevenLabs voice
Celine, Claire, bundled voice presets, custom voice ID support, and local voice previews.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
Free, open source, and bring-your-own-key. Here is how Scowld works.
Is Scowld free?
Yes. Scowld is free and open source (MIT). There are no subscriptions, paywalls, voice credits, or in-app purchases. You bring your own provider API keys and pay your chosen providers directly for usage.
What does bring-your-own-key (BYOK) mean?
You use your own API keys for the AI, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech providers you choose. Keys are stored only in the iOS Keychain on your device, so Scowld never runs a server that sees or stores them.
Which AI providers does Scowld support?
Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, Ollama, Groq, OpenRouter, xAI, Together AI, Hugging Face, Venice AI, and Moonshot AI. You can switch providers and models any time in Settings.
What speech-to-text and text-to-speech options are available?
Voice input works with native iOS speech recognition or cloud providers like OpenAI Whisper, Groq Whisper, Deepgram, AssemblyAI, and Google Cloud Speech-to-Text. Spoken replies use ElevenLabs or OpenAI voices.
Are my API keys stored securely?
Yes. Provider keys are stored in the iOS Keychain on your device, are not bundled in the app binary, and are never sent to Scowld servers. Requests go directly from your device to the provider you configured.
Is Scowld open source?
Yes. Scowld is released under the MIT License and the source is available on GitHub at github.com/apoorvdarshan/scowld.
Does Scowld need an account or an internet connection?
No account is required. Cloud AI, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech need an internet connection and valid provider keys, while native iOS speech recognition works on device.
What is hands-free wake mode?
An optional mode where Scowld listens on device for "Bella" or your custom companion name to start voice recording. Wake detection is processed on device and is not sent to providers before recording starts.