the anti-friend sentiment is hitting vitriolic levels. have spoken to a few of the advertisement cleaner guys: they are coming every day and *still* have no way to keep up with the vandalism. companions have been popular form factor since the days of Replika and continue to be popular as chatbots, but as soon as you veer into always-listening **hardware**, it's clear consumers aren't there yet. my opinion is that in order for these devices to succeed, they need to enter through a 'gateway drug' like glasses (meta/raybans) or watches (Amazon/bee) that people are already familiar with vs. an entirely new form factor like friend/humane/rabbit.