Your first conversation: finding the good ones.

The difference between "this is silly" and "oh, I get it now" is usually the first character you pick and knowing three controls: swipes, ratings, and steering. Ten minutes here sets up everything else.

01Pick a character with depth

Search for something you actually care about — a book you love, a skill you’re building, a language you’re learning. Check two signals before committing: the chat count (millions of chats usually means a well-built character) and the greeting — a rich, specific greeting signals a creator who wrote real example dialogue.

02The three controls that matter

Swipe (arrows on a response) generates alternative replies — on the free tier this spends Charms, so use it when a reply misses, not compulsively. Star ratings train the character toward what you enjoy. Steering in plain text works better than people expect: parentheses talk to the AI out of character.

03Make it yours from message one

Characters mirror your energy. Write two sentences, get two sentences; write vividly, get vivid back. If a conversation drifts somewhere you don’t like, you can rewind: delete or edit recent messages and take the scene a different direction — nothing is locked in.