App & speaker setup
Private preview · 4 October 2026
Best Friend Says gives your own dog or cat a playful character voice. It is entertainment, not a translation of animal sounds or a reliable account of what an animal thinks. iPhone and Android builds are in private testing. Public downloads and paid checkout are not open.
Choose a setup
The app runs on the phone. A compatible Bluetooth speaker can play the pet's replies; a camera is not required for conversation. The speaker setup is the main hardware direction. App-only use through the phone's audio is also being considered for launch. Speaker bundles, camera bundles, supported-device lists and final package prices have not been released.
A collar camera is a separate prototype under development. The tested iPhone build has live-video and short recording evidence, but playback/UI fixes and full customer acceptance are pending. Its recorded video has no audio. Do not buy hardware on the assumption that every Wi-Fi camera works with the app. Read Camera availability before choosing one.
Get the right private build
Use the installation instructions supplied with your private test invitation. Android packages must include the matching model asset packs; a base APK alone is incomplete for a fresh installation. Keep the existing app and pet data when updating. Do not uninstall to troubleshoot without first arranging a backup with your tester contact.
The preview contains large on-phone models and needs substantial free storage. Compatibility, memory use, heat, battery life and response speed vary by phone. A successful build is not a supported-device guarantee. Allow preparation to finish before starting a conversation.
Set up your own pet
In the app, choose Dog or Cat, enter your pet's name, choose your own photo, and add the people and favorite things you want the pet to know. Select the available prepared male or female voice. The voice choice changes sound. Dog and Cat use different character behavior. The app also has a separate Potty Mouth setting for adult language; check it before use around children.
The website's personality choices are a concept preview. They remain in the browser profile, but do not select an additional personality in the current phone app. The browser profile is not synced to or imported by the app. Enter your details in the app itself. Changing species or voice should preserve saved identity and history; report any unexpected loss rather than resetting the app.
Check audio off the animal first
Pair the speaker in your phone's Bluetooth settings and select it as the audio output. Test at low volume with the phone and speaker off the animal. Check both the spoken reply and the microphone input. A speaker that plays audio does not necessarily provide a usable Bluetooth microphone. Input routing depends on the phone, OS and accessory.
Use the phone's volume controls and the app's sound controls. Keep the phone and speaker within a reliable connection range. Pause listening or use Stop before changing routes. Echo, outdoor noise, dropouts, calls and other audio can affect recognition or playback. No collar fit, water resistance, running use or safe animal-mounted assembly is certified by this preview.
Talk, type, replay and stop
Use the Talk/listening controls shown in your build, or type with Ask dog / Ask cat. The on-phone model creates fresh replies and prepared speech plays them. Replay uses an existing clip. Say exact line is for words you choose. Recognition and generated answers can be wrong; correct the pet and do not use it for emergency, veterinary or other consequential decisions.
Stop cancels the current activity. Hands-free listening is an explicit choice. Background and locked-screen behavior depends on platform, permissions and audio route; it remains part of private-device acceptance. Pet mode is a simplified foreground view. It does not silence calls, configure Focus or automatically lock the OS into the app. Android screen pinning is a separate owner action where offered.
Music and offline use
The current iPhone and Android source catalogs each include 70 tracks for offline playback. Music and speech share the phone's audio route. Explicit Pause or Stop takes precedence over automatic resume. Optional phone-music-library features depend on your library and its service; they do not make streamed music offline.
The current conversation and prepared-speech models run on the phone. Android uses offline recognition; iPhone requires supported on-device English recognition. A complete installation and required recognition resources must be ready first. Downloads, optional music services and camera setup have their own connectivity requirements. Sound-only Pack Chat is being developed without inter-app network messages. This is not a guarantee that every feature works in airplane mode on every phone.
Permissions
Microphone access is needed for spoken input. iPhone also requests speech recognition. Photo/camera access is for the photo features you choose. Optional phone music, direct local camera connections and notifications request access for those features. Denying a permission can make that feature unavailable; it should not be described as successful.
Review permissions in your phone's Settings. Apple describes its controls in iPhone privacy settings; Google explains Android app permissions. Settings names vary with OS version.
Reminders, memory and Pack Chat
Review the exact date, AM/PM and time zone before confirming a reminder. Check its saved state afterwards. The Reminders & memory guide explains the confirmation boundary and pending device checks.
People, favorites and local conversation history are different from a voice command that permanently remembers a new fact. Voice-based remember confirmation remains under development and is not installed in the tested builds at this checkpoint. Do not assume a spoken request saved a permanent fact.
Pack Chat is being developed for pets to hear one another aloud. An owner enables Pack, their pet declares itself alpha and invites others through speech, and already-listening phones show a local Join or Decline choice. Accepted pets introduce themselves and converse through sound. Each phone can use its own Bluetooth speaker, but apps do not exchange Pack data over LAN or Bluetooth. The old network prototype is paused. The sound-only version still needs real-device qualification and is not released.
Private-preview guide · Existing purchase and founder agreements unchanged.