Is PolyBuzz safe to use? The short answer
PolyBuzz is reasonably safe for adults. Its June 2026 privacy policy says chats are stored privately, not sold, and deleted on request. The notable risks sit elsewhere: a no-refund subscription clause, and an age gate that outside the UK is a self-reported birthday.
Getting to that summary meant reading three legal documents that never link to each other, so I did. The top-ranked community post that tried the same policy read has since been deleted, and nearly every guide ranking for this question is written by a company selling parental-control software. What follows is my document trail, with section numbers, so you can check every claim yourself. I have run the same read on Talkie, where the operator turned out to be a Singapore company, and on JanitorAI.
One honest limit up front: reading policies cannot tell me how the app behaves in practice. Filter behavior, ad load, and what the subscription actually feels like only show up in a hands-on test I have paid for, and PolyBuzz is in my test queue. This page covers what the documents prove today.
What is PolyBuzz?
PolyBuzz is a free-to-start AI character chat app where users create and roleplay with AI personalities, still widely searched under its former name, Poly AI. It runs on web, iOS, and Android, and monetizes through Poly subscriptions and coin packs. The anime-styled characters and private, lightly filtered chats are the draw, and also the reason its safety gets asked about weekly on Reddit.
Who runs PolyBuzz, and where does your data go?
PolyBuzz is operated by Singularity Mutual Entertainment Culture Media Limited, a Hong Kong company, according to its own privacy policy (effective June 1, 2026). Then I opened the App Store listing and found a different name on the seller line: CLOUD WHALE INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY LLC. Two entities, one app, and no page on the site explaining the relationship. That is not unusual for apps in this category, but you should know whose terms you are agreeing to and who charges your card.
On the data itself, the policy reads more ordinary than the scare posts suggest:
| Question | What the documents say | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Is your data sold? | ”We DO NOT sell User Information to any other individual, company, or organization” | Policy, sec. 6.3 |
| Is it shared? | Shared with partners, affiliates, service providers, “including the Chat-GPT platform” | Policy, sec. 5.1 |
| What is collected automatically? | Device ID, IMEI, OAID, MAC, browser type, OS version, IP, logs | Policy, sec. 2.2.1 |
| How long is it kept? | ”No longer than is necessary” | Policy, sec. 8.1 |
The sharing clause matters more than the selling clause. Your prompts pass through third-party AI infrastructure, which is how nearly every companion app works. A widely shared claim that PolyBuzz is “a black web app that takes photos of u and sells it on the black web” circulated on Reddit with no source; I found nothing in the policy or either store listing that supports it.
Where PolyBuzz stands against the apps I have actually paid for and tested: the current No Filter Arena leaderboards carry the community scores, and best free NSFW AI chat puts its free tier next to four whose limits I measured myself.
Does PolyBuzz read or train on your chats?
I started with the official FAQ, which promises chats are “completely private” and that “neither the creators nor Poly have access to the chat content between users and the AI characters.” Then I read the policy, and the story got more precise.
Chats are stored in the cloud and scoped to your account. User reports on r/polybuzz, including replies from accounts presenting as staff, describe access happening in exactly two cases: when you report a problem, and when law enforcement compels it. That is a normal moderation posture, but it is not the same thing as “no access.”
Training is where the policy gets specific, and where I slowed down: uploaded photos may be used to “train our AI algorithm” (sec. 2.1.2.6). About chat text, the policy says nothing in either direction. If chat-training matters to you, treat the question as open until PolyBuzz answers it in writing.
Deletion works but has fine print. Deleting a chat is described as permanent and unrecoverable, and account deletion is available in Settings. The policy adds that backups are not purged immediately (sec. 7.3.2). Delete means delete, eventually.
Is PolyBuzz safe for kids?
No. PolyBuzz’s own Terms of Use (updated June 1, 2026) require users to be 18 or older and state that minors are denied service. The iOS listing carries an 18+ age rating.
This is an adult app by its own paperwork, and the documented incidents involve children who reached it anyway: a Boston school posted a safety notice in June 2025 after students were found using it, and one parent described an 11-year-old receiving sexualized replies to innocent messages. Those are user reports, not audits, but they are consistent with how weak the gate is.
Then I hit a contradiction PolyBuzz should answer for. The Terms ban minors outright; the FAQ advertises “a dedicated Teen Mode specifically for children.” I checked both pages again on July 18, 2026, and both statements are live. A company that cannot keep its own age story straight has not earned the benefit of the doubt from parents.
How the age checks actually work
In the US, the gate is a self-reported birth date on mobile signup, and by third-party accounts the web version asks even less. In the UK, the Online Safety Act forced real verification: the Terms name Ondato and Yoti as the providers, and they can request a government ID.
In other words, PolyBuzz verifies age exactly where the law makes it, and nowhere else. Parents should treat this app as blockable-only; there are no parental controls inside it.
What to check before you pay
The subscription terms are the sharpest edge I found in the documents. Two clauses to read before entering a card:
- Auto-renewal. Plans renew “unless it is cancelled on or before the last day of the subscription period” (Terms, June 2026).
- No refunds. Payments “will not be refunded, even if the subscription is subsequently cancelled.” Cancel too late and the next cycle is yours.
Current iOS pricing for reference: Poly Standard runs $4.99 weekly or $9.90 monthly, Poly Premium $19.90 monthly, Poly Ultimate $29.90 monthly, with coin packs from $2.49 to $19.90 on top. Whether any tier is worth it is a value question my hands-on test will answer; the billing terms above are why I recommend deciding with a calendar reminder set.